Sailor Moon: The Scourge of the Sailor Scouts
by metalgear
Summary: The remaining Shadows go into hiding after Sailor Moon's victory at Pluto's fortress, but the Sailor Starlights return to their universe hunting a dangerous criminal. The line between hero and villain blurs when the Shadows resort to more desperate measures to survive, the Starlights ruthlessly pursue their target, and friendships are torn apart. The sequel to SoSM is here!
1. The Shadows In Hiding

**Standard Disclaimer:** I do not own Sailor Moon, or the beloved cast of characters who originally starred in Naoko Takeuchi's manga and the classic 90s anime. However, the original characters featured in my story - including Logan, Stephanie, and Alyssa - are mine. If you'd like to feature any of my OCs in my work, you're welcome to ask - just please don't use them without my permission!

* * *

 **A/N: I'm back! Thank for checking out the sequel to Sailor Moon: Shadow of Silver Millennium! Needless to say, if you haven't finished the first story, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!**

 **Still reading? ;) If you haven't read the first story at all, I do recommend reading SoSM first: it introduces most of the original characters you'll read featured in this story. I do want this story to be accessible to new readers though, and the beginning chapters will play out through the eyes of a new character so it'll be my chance to get you up to speed.**

 **Last but not least, for those who read SoSM: welcome back! Your comments and support over the 15 months it took me to finish SoSM made this sequel possible! The first chapter may look familiar: I touched up the epilogue and preview from SoSM a bit so it will flow better, and combined them into one chapter.**

 **Enough introduction! Without further adieu...our next adventure begins!**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: The Shadows in Hiding**

 _ **Stephanie**_

I almost hurled when I dropped onto the purple crystalline floor of the former Sailor Scout Castle orbiting Pluto's moon. _Our cell master had shown me how to teleport, but it was for short-range maneuvers, like dodging or striking weak points...and even that got disorienting. Only by following Alyssa, aided by a large dark shard monolith, was I able to follow her to this place. Alyssa had to know someone came after her...but had to find out if the rumors about the First Spymaster's identity were true..._

A grim blend of admiration and dread filled me when I saw our former Spymaster's stronghold for myself. _His cell must have been strong - or cunning - to take it under the nose of a Sailor Scout. They were supposed to be the toughest and strongest of us...how could the Sailor Scouts wipe them out after half a week?_

There HAD been a massive battle here... _could THIS have been the Sailor Scouts' doing?_ Massive cracks ran through the walls, the ceilings and the floors. The emptiness of space was my only companion inside the barren fortress. I knew I couldn't stay here too long: _Alyssa catching me was the last thing I'd have to worry about if the Sailor Scouts came back to finish the job, or if the Guardian who once protected this place awoke._ I dusted off my dark blue Shadow robes, pulled the curly brown hair under my hood, and carried on in search of my own objective.

 _Tithon - the second and our most recent Spymaster - once called this base home._ I heard some 'true' Shadows, as they called the graduates, claim they remembered their 'past lives' from a thousand years in the past. They said they were Shadows back when we served the Moon Kingdom. Of course, that was before Queen Serenity killed the First Spymaster in cold blood... _though I still wasn't sure if I believed THAT part._ The Shadows told me that the Sailor Scouts lived in ancient times too...they were the Princesses of their time. I hadn't paid too much attention to the Sailor Scouts growing up: I was too busy being Ms. Popular: the honors student, the nationally-ranked cheerleader, the girl everyone wanted to be 'friends' with. Only after my mother died, did I realize how alone I truly was...and Alyssa implored me to join them in their cause to preserve freedom for future generations. They told me the Sailor Scouts were liars: their true scheme was imposing a global monarchy ruled by Sailor Moon herself...yet for all their rhetoric, we weren't aiming to destroy the Sailor Scouts...I doubted we even wanted to stop them from taking over Earth. Seeing the destruction they caused first-hand made either seem like a futile endeavor. I was terrified of running into them now, a lone Shadow novice with mere weeks of training under my belt against seasoned veterans.

Alyssa had always warned me never to hide in any one place for too long. She taught me that nowhere was safe forever, that Tithon lived by the point complacency was the death of the Moon Kingdom, not 'Queen Beryl' or whatever supernatural jargon they spoke of...but that we had to avoid becoming complacent ourselves. Tithon making his final stand here went against everything Alyssa taught me about him. But she also told me this place held special significance to him. _It was named after the First Spymaster. Charon_.

And there, in the crumbling remnants of the training hall where Tithon himself welcomed his own initiates, I found my reason for being here. My caution and dread flew to the wind when I set eyes on the deteriorating statue. Coming here was a vigil for all Shadow graduates, a reminder of the past we sought to prevent. Charon...the First Spymaster...being struck down by the woman he once looked to as a mother. "The witch who deceived the entire universe," I repeated to myself. _That was who we were taught Queen Serenity was...and Sailor Moon would deceive Earth into calling her our savior._

Charon's arms may have stretched towards the sky at one point, but they had fallen off crumbling to the side. Besides a few cracks, the figure of Queen Serenity gloating over his defeat looked largely intact. _I just hoped that wasn't an omen._

"They say you betrayed us too...Charon. They say you were reborn, and you're helping our bitter enemies wipe us out." I felt awkward calling HIM by name...and not just because the others stopped him the First Spymaster. The Shadows also said Charon had been reborn on Earth in the 21st century...as my best friend...

With the upper floor badly disintegrated, I tried to get a footing on Queen Serenity's statue thinking. I thought to climb up, but I was still a bit nauseated after the trip here, and my climbing technique was still rusty. As if I thought the statue would answer me back...that SOMEWHERE Logan would hear me...

"What I can't believe is who they're saying you are in the present. I had to see for myself...if it would be your face on the statue. My best friend...my ONLY friend growing up." _Logan...please don't let it be you...  
_  
I clawed my way to the top of Queen Serenity's statue, just across from Charon's face...but my eyelids held themselves shut as if I were a child petrified of the dark. _Come on, Steph! Even if you really believed the Sailor Scouts and half the Shadows were reborn a thousand years in the future, there's no way LOGAN was Charon reincarnated! Open your eyes and prove to yourself it's not him..._

* * *

When I faced my fear and forced my eyes open, a badly-worn face greeted me. I squinted for a closer look just when I heard the near-silent wisp of a Shadow teleporting over my head. _It was a noise I would have easily missed if I hadn't been trained to listen for it._ But my reflexes weren't as sharp: my attacker threw me off the tower. I fell on my back, lying atop the scattered mementos dedicated to Charon at the base of the statue. Another Shadow who dropped from the statue, arms extended by her side as she fell, landing gracefully to her feet as someone who had launched ambushes like this a million times. I briefly feared I'd see her wearing the gray robes of the Spymaster's cell - _they'd pick a fight with ANYONE, even Shadows from other cells_ \- but I was briefly comforted by the dark blue robes of Alyssa's cell. My brief sense of ease quickly waned when I noticed a rogue strand of silver hair creeping out from the hood that masked her face, and her own identifying insignias: the faded crescent moons viciously ripped off her uniforms as the sole reminder of our former allegiance to the Moon Kingdom. _It wasn't anyone else..._  
 **  
**"ALYSSA! It's me!" I called to her. My arms were taut by her side in a fighting stance...for a brief instant, I feared she'd actually strike me in retaliation for following her. But it was another warning; Alyssa backed down.

"You followed me through the long-range portal, Svetlana?!" _Only my mother and nana ever used it...my mother rarely raised her voice at me, she only need say my hated birth name_ _to show anger or disappointment. A trait Alyssa picked up on._ Alyssa tactlessly kicked aside a bracelet one Shadow had left to Charon's memory before the embroidered decoration on my leather vest caught her eye. Like a disgusted child about to cry 'eww', she pointed and gawked at it. "What is that cat face doing there?!"

 _Of all the things to go off on me about!_ "She's a kitty! I could never get one because both my mom and my nana were allergic." I realized that I sounded just as childish with my pouty answer, so I straightened my back like the professional I was supposed to be. "You said we could decorate our robes after the first two weeks of training!"

"We don't DECORATE our robes. We're not in preschool," Alyssa snapped. "And you shouldn't need me to tell you cats are a BIG no-no!"

"She's not a Guardian Cat!" Again, my posturing left me as I pointed down to the kitty's smiling face. "See? No crescent moon on her forehead! And she's smiling, not chowing down on orphans or setting villages on fire!"

Alyssa raised an eyebrow. "Hold on...I didn't tell you Guardian Cats ate kids or burned down houses, did I? They're normal-sized cats."

"No, but you may as well have," I joked. "You get pretty fired up when you start talking about the big bad Sailor Scouts with the insidious talking cats steering them towards global domination."

"The Sailor Scouts aren't boogeymen from a book of fables, Svetlana!" she snapped back. _Again, with that name..._ "We watched the Sailor Scouts for six years, and they swatted our best out of the air like flies in DAYS! Who else do you think is responsible for the team I sent here going dark?! I came here myself so I wouldn't lose anyone else!"

"Alyssa...I didn't mean it like that, OK? I don't take the Scouts lightly," I said apologetically. "Everyone back home said the Sailor Scouts were practically invincible. You pretty much confirmed it and then you go off on your own while telling the rest of us to hide in the dirt!"

"For all the flak I give Tithon, he was a damn good teacher. I can myself...and unlike some of the meatheads from his cell, I know how to stay true to our namesake. YOU do not. But that's only half the reason you're here, isn't it?" Alyssa sighed. "You're here for Logan."

My eyes widened. _I'd never mentioned Logan to her._ "How did you - "

"Because he's the reason I sought you out in the first place," Alyssa admitted. _She never told me...maybe I was naive to think she would have...but she cared about us, and wanted Earth to have SOME semblance of freedom if the Scouts took over. I never doubted that._ "At first, I was just after information...but I thought you might actually have some talent, so I recruited her."

"The last time I saw Logan was my mother's funeral, seven years ago," I sadly reminded her. I looked to my boots, only to be reminded of mom's memorial stand at home: the letters, charms, and trinkets all scattered on the ground by the devastation that shook his namesake. _It was so long since I last visited you, ma...you and nana._ _Who knew where Martina or all the so-called friends I abandoned Logan for went? I still thought maybe they cared enough to visit her and I just wasn't there at the time...but in my heart I knew it wasn't true. Logan was the only person I had left from the early years of my life..._

"I know, I...wasn't planning on asking you," Alyssa admitted after an awkward silence. _I was still getting used to the fact we were supposed to be spies._

"But how did Logan get in touch with the SAILOR SCOUTS?" I asked.

"Because I sent him their way." Alyssa shuddered when she mentioned that. "Tithon wanted everything compartmentalized. His cell was the most important, the rest of us existed to support his operation in Tokyo. Even I didn't monitor the Scouts directly; he sent us reports every once in a while. When I found your friend, I realized he was the First Spymaster reborn. I didn't tell Logan anything about his past or who we were. Tithon's order was to make sure he got on a plane to Tokyo and he'd take care of the rest. At first I didn't tell you about Logan because I didn't want you to think I took you on as some charity case. Then word started getting around who our turncoat might be and...I had to find out for myself. Should have guessed you'd have the same idea."

"Look," I pleaded with Alyssa, "it's true: I haven't spoken to Logan in years. But he doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He's not a murderer, Alyssa."

Alyssa shook her head. "I felt bad for him when I found him. Seemed like a nice enough guy, maybe too virtuous for his own good though. Guys like him have a tough time making friends, Steph. If Sailor Moon herself's good at one thing besides convincing Earth she's a goodie-too-shoes like her mom, it's honing in on that sort of weakness. He was desperate to fit in SOMEWHERE, and she scooped him up."

 _If Alyssa was right...then all this was MY fault. I ruined whatever chance he had of making friends in that awful grade school when I accused HIM of sexually harassing me...all because Martina and the others wanted me to do it. I hoped going to another high school was the fresh start he needed. I convinced myself he'd find the crowd he deserved eventually, and he would be happier without me. Logan...if I had known, I never would have sent you away at mom's funeral, when you came to comfort me._

"Steph!" Alyssa snapped me out of my trance. "You can't afford to space out like that on mission. We've just been standing in the middle of the room like a pair of novices far too long. This Castle looks deserted, but the magic that suppressed the guardian here is wearing thin. And with the defenses breached, who knows if any other visitors will come?"

Alyssa went off to the side, rubbing her hand against the wall as if she were looking for a secret passage. Meanwhile, I looked around to the base of the statue and saw that part of the wall had been haphazardly kicked in. "Alyssa?"

"I noticed," Alyssa replied. "The Sailor Stooges must have gotten in a tight spot and kicked it open. Ah - here it is." The steady hum of dark magic betrayed the fiery pulse enveloping Alyssa's hand. The wall slid open upon the Cell Master's touch, revealing a secret passageway.

Despite the eerie calm of Charon Castle, my trainer's lesson stuck in my head... _stick to one side and let darkness cover you where possible._ I couldn't help gasping out loud when we emerged from Alyssa's secret passage: the first thing I noticed was a massive hole in the roof in the shape of a dragon, giving way to the deceptive beauty of cold, unforgiving space.

"Relax. It's magically sealed," assured Alyssa. Upon squinting, I did notice the faint, radiant purple barrier that kept us from one of the horrific fates I'd seen in one-too-many space movies. Pieces of dust danced to the cracked floor from the shattered ceiling like a gentle flurry of snow back home, only to be shaken by the thud of Alyssa's fist pounding one of the artifact stands. "That answers what happened to the others, though! YOU SON OF A BITCH, CHARON!"

"Alyssa!" Something about her slandering my friend, even after so long, still struck a cord with me. "How do you even know this was him?"

Seething anger that could have matched the dragon's face stretched Alyssa's face taut. "He had a transformation pendant, just like Tithon. Very rare magic from old Earth." _Logan turning into a real dragon? I could only hope we were still friends if he had THAT sort of power._ With another deep breath, she pointed to one of the shattered display cases lying under an ancient and battered suit of silver armor. "See there? Scorch marks. Electricity. My guess would be Sailor Jupiter. The Scouts never could have done this without his help. Damnit...Maria said her nephew's birthday was next week. Now I've gotta figure out how to explain she's gone..."

"Alyssa, this is my fault." She did a full 180 degree turn in my direction when I confessed. "He was my friend, but I treated him like dirt and abandoned him because...because I was more scared of losing my mom, and being alone - "

"Steph." Alyssa calmly raised her hand to stop me from babbling. "I knew about the sexual harassment charge too. Yeah, it was a nasty mark on his school record, but blaming yourself for what he did here is just silly. For what it's worth...he didn't seem to hold it against you, either."

 _Hearing that Logan didn't hold it against me WAS somewhat comforting...even if I couldn't be sure whether Alyssa was telling the truth or just saying it...but that wasn't enough._ "If Logan knew what we knew about Sailor Moon taking over Earth - that people actually rebelled against her - there's no way he would keep helping them!"

Alyssa sighed. "Maybe you'll get your chance. But this is about more than him. This is bigger than you, or me...maybe even more than the cell I'm bending over backwards to save. Even if you bring Logan back, he has a lot to answer for. Now enough chit-chat: come on."

Alyssa motioned for me to stay close as I wandered through the devastated artifact room. It could have been a true Castle once: there were golden cups, silver suits of armor, assortments of weapons, chalices, and rods...all strewn across the cracked floor. _How I would have loved to see Charon Castle before the Sailor Scouts destroyed it...ironic as that may sound._ Lying on the floor, out of place with the others, was a cracked mirror. _I could have sworn I saw a pair of glowing red eyes through one of the shards..._ but the echoes quickly faded and dissipated.

"Thank god that mirror's cracked," said Alyssa. Before I could ask what she meant, she waved a hand, and a dark portal - almost like a magic storage container - revealed itself with the transparent images of royal scepters and jewels inside. "They accomplished part of their mission though. They found a few Moon Kingdom trinkets worth keeping."

"So no survivors," I sighed. "What else are we looking for? You said, and I quote, 'their enemies conveniently disintegrate'."

Alyssa raised the leather gauntlet covering her forearm. "I could scan this whole room in one go...but now's a chance for you to practice your old-fashioned sleuthing. I'll look through what my team stored and see what we should bring back. Look for anything else of interest."

"Anything out of place in a room full of thousand-year old artifacts from the Moon? Sure," I scoffed to myself. _There were whispers alongside the artifacts stolen - LIBERATED from the old Moon Kingdom, there were items from the Scouts' future Kingdom._ _Proof of their future tyranny._ And one that was completely out-of-place with any of them.

"ALYSSA!" I called to her when I found an orange piece of canvas, tattered and badly worn. They were strewn across the ground, along with metal fragments...then I found metal bars torn asunder. Lying against the wall, buried under a former stand, was the littered wreckage of a mechanical engine and a metal skeleton covered in more orange canvas...with a heart pattern sketched into it.

"There are more pieces in the hallway," Alyssa pointed down the corner of the room, with another trail of debris taunting us through a dark corridor. I followed it inside while Alyssa, using the device hidden under her gauntlet, quietly scanned it. The trail was once again reduced to metal fragments and ripped canvas patches...but standing before me were the shattered remains of a dark crystal monoliths. I shuddered at the thought that - magically hidden away - shards like that punctured my own skin, just like Alyssa and all the Shadows.

"It does look like something the Scouts cooked up." Alyssa joined me, typing away on her prototype sensor computer. "Bright colors, heart decoration...think I'm gonna puke."

"Sounds kinda cute," I glowed.

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Figured you would. I would've pegged you for another Scout if I didn't know better."

 _Now it was MY turn to roll my eyes._ "But what do you think it was, exactly? I don't suppose you have room in your magical pocket to bring all this with us. **"**

"Don't call it a magical pocket." Alyssa shook her head. "Either the Scouts used it as some kind of missile, or the others stopped them from fully deploying it. The Scouts making weapons would be a new one. Luckily I have someone who might be able to give us more detail. Think of him as an independent contractor...he's not a Shadow so keep details light. Oh, and uh, take off your hood."

I dropped my hood like she asked and heard a ringtone coming from Alyssa's computer as if she were calling him on her phone. And another tone. Followed by another..."Oh for the love of..." After several rings, Alyssa flicked a switch and the holographic image of a figure with his back turned towards us appeared. Although his hunched shoulders were covered in darkness, I could see beakers filled with different colored fluids on opposite sides, and the illumination of a screen in front of him. _He was in some sort of lab..._

"Ah, my egg..." The strange man resumed rubbing his face against the object in his hands, coddling it like one of his children. "My precious, precious Easter egg! In mere months, I will unravel you and find out what sweet treat awaits me inside!"

"Doctor," Alyssa called into the communicator, thinly hiding the annoyance in her tone.

"Oh who am I kidding?" The mad doctor's tone abruptly switched and he threw the egg at the wall, going splat noise upon impact. "It's just not the same."

"DOCTOR TOMOE!" Alyssa shouted into into her wrist.

Doctor Tomoe abruptly spun around to face the camera in his lab. I could see he wore a white lab coat, but his face remained shrouded in darkness and his eyes were represented by illuminated white circles. "Alyssa! Sorry I was...er...how are you?"

"Missing your pods, Doc?" Alyssa snickered.

"N-no, I don't miss those horrible, disgusting heart-snatching monstrosities...even if they were MINE." Doctor Tomoe sighed. "I don't miss those days wrecking terror upon the world."

"Why are his eyes lit up like that?" I whispered to Alyssa. _They were creeping me out...along with the way this conversation was going._

"The...lighting in his office, I guess," sighed Alyssa. She raised an open palm pointed towards me. "This is Stephanie."

"Ah! Alyssa's latest trainee!" Tomoe bowed. "I've been working with her for just over three years now. I suppose you'll be my next challenger?"

"Challenger?" I asked.

"You'll see." _Alyssa was smirking. Never a good sign...she had some sadistic test in store for me, with the strange doctor involved no less._  
"Doctor, could you log into my database and look at some scans I took? We're short on time and trying to figure out if this design has any...unintended uses."

Doctor Tomoe's hand reached to the side of his head, as if he were fiddling with a pair of glasses. "Ah...you know genetics are my area of expertise, but I suppose another pair of eyes wouldn't hurt. I'll connect to your database."  
 **  
**Alyssa tapped me on the shoulder, lay down on the floor with her hands beneath her head, and crossed her legs. "Wake me up when he connects."

With the holographic image of Doctor Tomoe's lab still visible, he turned his back to the webcam and sat in front of his computer screen. ThenI heard the sound of a dial tone...followed by the sound of dialing numbers in a touch tone phone. Then the beeps, hissing and crackling of a 56k modem connecting to the internet...  
 **  
**"Doctor Tomoe? Are you using dial-up?!" I asked in measured disbelief.

Tomoe swiveled around to face the webcam from his chair. _Again, with the illuminated eyes and bright red lips while the rest of him's shrouded in darkness..._ "Why, yes Stephanie. What you're hearing is the sound of a modem connecting to - "

"I know, Professor." I whispered towards Alyssa: "Is he stuck in a time warp?"

"That webcam I put there is the only thing in his lab made after 1995," snickered Alyssa with closed eyes. "It's like a museum in there!"

"Isn't dial-up kinda...slow, given your line of work?" I asked Doctor Tomoe through Alyssa's communicator. "I expected your lab would be more...cutting-edge."

Doctor Tomoe sighed, gluing his eerie eyes to the screen. "We must be cautious of progress, for progress' sake, Stephanie. We strive for change that truly betters the lives of others, but there's also change that puts others at risk with personal gain as the only reward. And then there's progress that leads to the destruction of your entire lab with the only means left to save your beloved daughter offered by a vile heart snatcher, who guarantees you will both survive if you allow him to possess you, but he twists your mind and nominates your own daughter, the very same girl you struck your deal with the devil in the first place, for possession by an even more ruthless heart snatcher with an unquenchable appetite for pure hearts so that HER master can take over the world, and they use YOUR research to find those pure hearts! Muaha...MUAHAHAHAHA! MUAHAHAHA - " Dr. Tomoe abruptly stopped and cleared his throat. "Sorry, force of habit. You don't want that to happen to you, Stephanie."

"...OK, though I'm not sure how faster internet leads to a higher chance of possession," I said...at a loss for much else to say.

"Speaking of which..." Doctor Tomoe turned his back to the computer screen and I nudged Alyssa up with my toe. "Ah, the images are up on my screen. Hmm...looks to be some sort of...rocket-propelled hang glider?! Alyssa, tell me this isn't one of your designs!"

"Definitely not," sighed Alyssa. "Whatever it was, someone seems to have intentionally crashed it. You don't think it could be a weapon of sorts?"

"Hmm..." Doctor Tomoe trailed off. "Piecing together your scans, I'd say the jet engine was badly designed. Looks more like it was made for crude stuntwork. The remains of the glider itself suggest it would have been impractical for carrying armaments. Then again...the entire design is completely impractical! Like its creator was entirely focused on aesthetics with little concern for basic functionality or safety. Whoever came up with this must be completely insane!"

"Pot calling the kettle - "

Alyssa elbowed me even though I was muttering under my breath. We both flinched when we heard a buzzing noise crackling in our ears. _One of Alyssa's "silent alarms"...a power she used to alert her of trespassers._

"I'll get back to you in a second, Doc!" Alyssa cut him off. _A second? Not with dial-up._

"Stay here!" Alyssa hissed at me. She raised her arm, blocking the hallway. While we stayed in the room with the Dark Crystal remnants, we could hear voices outside...

* * *

"No way meatball head was the one who did a number on THIS place..." I could vaguely make out one of the voices edging uncomfortably close to us. _Our mystery guests were entering the halls._ Alyssa grapped me and teleported to a scaffold I didn't even realize was in the room _._ Underneath us, into the room littered with dark shards, passed three similarly-dressed figures with hair in long ponytails. The middle one had black hair, the tallest was a brunette, and the last one had white hair despite a youthful appearance. Navy blue bikini tops, hotpants, long gloves with knee-high boots, and pretentious golden beaded tiaras...

"They're dressed like Sailor Scouts," I whispered to Alyssa. _I hadn't really kept up with the Sailor Scouts before, but I had a vague idea what they looked like._ "But they don't look like the ones I expected."  
 _  
_"That's because they're not from our Solar System," Alyssa whispered back.

"You mean we have extraterrestrial Scouts to worry about too?" I groaned in a whisper. _Like Alyssa didn't make our solar system's Scouts sound bad enough._ Just then, a strange form of energy began materializing and hissing behind us. _Loud enough to draw our invaders' attention..._

"Oh hell!" Alyssa cried before shoving me off the scaffolding, surprising the Scout-like visitors below. Alyssa was blasted back by the transparent form of a Sailor Scout I DID recognize from one of Alyssa's briefings...

"The dark magic restraining me is broken. I am Guardian Pluto, the keeper of Charon Castle on Sailor Pluto's behalf!" The wisp-like form of energy dispersed into raw energy, flying and reforming on our floor. "Trespassers! Identify yourselves!"

Leaning against the wall, I heard Alyssa sigh "someone just had to ask..." Our three guests began snapping their fingers behind me...

"We first came to this universe on a talent search for our Princess," said the black-haired Scout while the others continued snapping their fingers.

"Talent search?!" I repeated with an eye roll. _Alyssa wasn't kidding about the Princess-sized egos._

"Quiet!" snapped the brunette. "Our song drew her back to us, and now her song leads us back here."

"So we've returned for an encore," said the white-haired one.

"Sailor Star Fighter!" the black-haired Sailor "Scout" with ocean blue eyes introduced herself.

"Sailor Star Maker!" declared the brunette Scout.

"Sailor Star Healer!" pronounced the white-haired Scout with emerald green eyes.

"WE'RE THE SAILOR STARLIGHTS! IT'S SHOWTIME!" They declared in unison.

"Do ALL the Sailor Scouts give such long-winded introductions?" I groaned out loud. _Another reason to be scared of them teaming up with Moon Kingdom Scouts...we'd be here for hours listening to them._

"Just what we need," Alyssa stumbled to her feet. "More fascist pigs wearing lipsticks."

"And who are you supposed to be?" demanded Sailor Star Fighter. The small mirror image of Sailor Pluto spun her mysterious key-shaped rod with impressive precision and pointed the orb end...towards the Starlights.

"Even if you are Sailor Scouts, you may not enter the Castle of another without permission! I demand to know why you are here!" _Good thing Pluto seemed as much against the Starlights as we were, and paying little attention to me or Alyssa...the Shadows WERE the ones who suppressed her, after all._

Sailor Star Fighter dismissively flicked her hand in the air. "We don't have time for this, we're tracking down someone plotting rebellion on our homeworld -"

"Why didn't you just say that the first time she asked?!" I complained.

"You robed freaks aren't very polite, are you?" snarled Sailor Star Maker. "We're not wasting our time on you circus rejects." _Alyssa, PLEASE let me punch one of them._

"Some job you did guarding this place," Sailor Star Fighter snickered to Guardian Pluto as her eyes surveyed the damage. "Maybe Sailor Moon could use our help mopping up another mess once we're finished here!"

I admit, I was slightly frightened when I looked at Alyssa. Though her eyes were shaded by her hood, I could feel her anger surging from the other side of the room. "Like hell you will..."  
 **  
To Be Continued**

* * *

 **A/N:** Aren't you just thrilled the Sailor Starlights are back? :P Technically there never was an official English dub of the classic anime's final season, but Fighter4Luv's fandub was a big source of inspiration. They set the tone for "DiC-ifying" the Starlights while staying true to the original storyline - credit goes to them for "it's showtime!" - sounds better to me than "stage on!" I highly recommend checking their fandub, along with the season itself, out!

I had this chapter polished and wanted to post it so I could focus on a new one for all of you - hope to post it in a week! Thanks to everyone who read last time - your reviews made me confident and optimistic about my plans for the sequel! If you enjoyed this chapter, please click on the follow button so you'll know as soon as it's here :) your notes and reviews are especially encouraging, nothing keeps a writer motivated than knowing people are reading! Don't worry, Logan and Sailor Moon fans...they'll be back ;) I just hope you'll enjoy Stephanie, Alyssa, and Doctor Tomoe's side as much as our original cast when Serena and friends return! Chapter 2 on the way!


	2. Not Getting Starstruck

**Chapter 2: Not Getting Starstruck**

 ** _Stephanie_**

Alyssa's reply to the Starlights' threat to join Sailor Moon's hunt for us fell on deaf - or unconcerned - ears. My eyes had been fixed on the clearer threat - the Guardian - but Alyssa's darted back and forth between the extraterrestrial princesses and Guardian Pluto.  
 _  
_"Look, you're wasting our time," Sailor Star Maker complained. "If you're really on Sailor Moon's team, get in touch with her and - "

"Do not presume to order me about!" Guardian Pluto snapped back. "Sailor Pluto is the one who will consider your request to speak with our Princess! You may not leave until you explain yourselves to her directly!"

The wisp clutched her smaller key-shaped rod tightly, as if she were resisting the urge to beat one of the Starlights over the head with it. The one thing we had going for us was Guardian Pluto didn't seem too concerned about us...even though our side deprived her of powers and placed her in stasis. _Maybe Tithon's cell caught her off guard when they sealed her away and took Pluto's castle. Tithon...I meant the last Spymaster. We were NEVER supposed to address him by first name. Not even Alyssa, until recently._

"Are you hard of hearing, sprite?!" I could see agitation stretching the face muscles in Star Fighter's face tight. _Alyssa made a point of watching for 'nonverbal cues'...I heard that Charon could read you like an open book, though you didn't need to be one to see the Starlights were growing impatient._ "Sailor Moon knows us..."

"What are we doing?" I whispered to Alyssa. All three Starlights bore identical expressions of exasperation: at least one clenched fist to match furrowed brows. _I was sure Alyssa would have made a break for it now, throwing down that magical concealing smoke of hers - OURS - to cover our escape. Instead, she was watching them._

"We can't risk them following us." Alyssa tilted her face ever so slightly towards me, just enough so the Starlights and Guardian Pluto couldn't see her."You're not ready for the Starlights...but Guardian Pluto can give us a window."

 _The Starlights and the keeper of Charon Castle were already distracted, arguing among themselves...but Alyssa wanted to go a step further._ After eyeing them to make sure they weren't looking our way, I whispered back "they may not like each other, but they're still Sailor Scouts. Getting them to actually fight each other is a tall order..."

Alyssa returned my uncertainty with a confident smirk... _as eerily pretentious as one I'd expect the Starlights to throw around_. "Pluto just needs a nudge in the right direction. Just don't do what I do. Stay and push their buttons..."

"How? What are you - " before I could finish asking, Alyssa revolved one-hundred eighty degrees and sprinted towards the hallway leading into the artifact room. She just dashed ahead in a straight line _...but then, she made it sound like the Starlights never encountered us before. They didn't know what powers we had, or that Shadows were supposed to be experts at escape among other things...she WANTED to make herself an easy target._

"COWARD! GET BACK HERE!" Sailor Star Healer broke away from the argument at the sight of Alyssa sprinting for it. As if they expected me to do the same, Star Fighter and Star Maker each grabbed my forearms and shoved me to the ground. _How badly I wanted to teleport away from them..._

Guardian Pluto raised her miniature key-shaped rod in Alyssa's direction, launching two white spheres of energy that flew ahead of Alyssa, then joined together and spread open around her like a capture net. Alyssa found herself briefly encased in a clear magical barrier...but then static-like pulses colored black and purple crackled around it, before rebounding on the caster. Guardian Pluto fizzled when she was struck, opening her mouth in wordless pain as she fell to her knees, dropping her mystical rod in exhaustion. _The remains of the magic Tithon's cell used to imprison her...it still affected her._  
 _  
_"Careful! These weirdos are more dangerous than we thought!" Star Maker called out across from me to Star Fighter.

"Says the half-naked Powerpuff Punks galavanting around the universe in unzipped hot pants!" I mumbled to myself. Both Starlights still pinned me down on the fractured ground.

"Your magic..." Guardian Pluto weakly mumbled my way as the barrier surrounding Alyssa dissipated. "The same darkness. You...imprisoned me here..."

I couldn't help feeling sorry for Guardian Pluto _,_ even if she was our enemy...and even if she wouldn't have given me a second thought had our positions been reversed. _She was reeling as much from disappointment as pain. Her only purpose was to keep Charon Castle safe from all intruders. She wasn't like those she served._ Then I wondered: _could Alyssa's plan to turn them against each other still work, knowing the others - knowing WE - dispelled Guardian Pluto? Or had Alyssa planned for this too?  
_  
"You won't escape!" Sailor Star Healer charged in front of the fallen guardian, taunting my cell master as the barrier surrounding her fell. Before Alyssa would have a chance to keep running, a star made of pure light materialized in the palm of Star Healer's right hand. She lifted both arms in the air and held them in front of her. "Star Sensitive Inferno!"

"SENSITIVE Inferno?" I couldn't help repeating Star Healer before I was deafened by the thundering boom of an electrical discharge, following by the sound of glass shattering in the artifact room Alyssa was fleeing towards.

"What...have you done?!" pleaded a weakened Guardian Pluto. "Sailor Pluto's...treasured keepsakes..."

I crooned my head upwards to find Sailor Star Healer waltzing back our way, not showing the least bit of concern for Guardian Pluto. "I just took care of half your pest control problem for you. Since you're obviously not qualified to handle it yourself..."

"Now we'll just throw out the rest of your trash and be on our way," finished a condescending Sailor Star Fighter, clearly disregarding Pluto's insistence that they stay here. With a bob of the head from Star Healer, the other two Starlights dragged me to my feetand back towards the artifact room. _I already hated these smug idiots. They were just like the sort of people I used to hang out with...the sort of people who ruined Logan's life - and others - just because they could. They were just bullies. The Sailor Scouts were truly awful people if these were the sort of jerks they worked with..._

 _Except...Logan was also helping the Sailor Scouts. And I could never accept he would be helping them if he knew the future Sailor Moon wanted, if he knew it meant he'd be working with people like the Starlights too. Or aliens who look like people. Whatever._

 _At least now I knew where the "inferno" part came from...the burning scent that followed._

* * *

I noticed the shattered glass and charred display cases that must have been struck when Star Healer's electric-based attack bounced. _As if the cracked walls, ceiling, and dragon-sized hole in the roof wouldn't be enough to send Guardian Pluto into a fit._ I saw a white, gold-trimmed noble suit left in tatters, _definitely burned to a crisp by Star Healer's attack. Not what I expected someone named 'Healer' to unleash, and I couldn't see anything 'sensitive' about that attack._

"If you don't want to end up like your friend, you won't try to escape." Star Healer threatened me.

"What do you mean? Where is she?!" I panicked a bit when I didn't see Alyssa, but I resisted the urge to look around for her out of fear I'd tip the Starlights off to her hiding spot. _Star Healer couldn't have gotten her. Of course Alyssa got away in time. She wouldn't leave me here so that she could escape herself...even if, she did teach me, there were circumstances Shadows COULD justify leaving someone behind. But this wasn't that kind of situation...Alyssa wouldn't..._

"We'll make you a deal." Star Maker dragged me up to a standing position. "Tell us how many of you there are, what you're doing here, and where the rest of you are hiding, and we won't turn you into a crispy critter!" _  
_  
 _The old me would have started babbling. I would have told them whatever tidbits of info the Shadows HAD trusted me with...after all, they couldn't do any harm. The best I could have told them was where Alyssa ordered me to rendezvous with my new handler, ensuring I'd be with SOMEONE when our cell went dark. The others would have been long gone...but that wasn't me anymore. I gave up one friend already. I wasn't going to give up anyone else just to save my own skin, whether it 'hurt' the Shadows or not._ "I'm just a trainee. They didn't tell me anything," I answered.

"You'd better think of something fast," Star Maker snapped. _Alyssa's coming back...stick to the plan...she wanted you to push the Starlights' buttons. I just needed to bring back all that contempt I had for them earlier..._

I could feel my bravado melting away when the far more combat-experienced trio stared into me, unconvinced. _Maybe I shouldn't have told them how inexperienced I was. Not after seeing the aftermath of Star Healer's attack..._

"Wait." Star Fighter interrupted, shedding some of her bravado. "This isn't how Sailor Moon would want us to handle this - "

"You want our home to end up looking like Pluto's crumbling heap?!" Star Maker snapped before turning her attention to me. "Hand back everything you took and scram."  
 _  
_"We came to pilfer Scout artifacts," I answered. _It was true enough that it might buy me time, and Alyssa had them well in hand...I couldn't get them back even if I wanted to._

 _Don't be scared of them. Remember the plan. Get them mad..._

"We...also wanted to deliver a message. To Sailor Moon." I clenched my fist and looked down at my hand, pretending I was holding a physical message in my hand. Star Maker's confused eyes followed mine downwards. _There was still no sign of Alyssa. But I HAD to trust she was just waiting for the right moment to pull me out of this one._ "Take this back to her when you see her. Tell her...this is for manipulating my friend!"  
 _  
_Those words just flowed out, as if someone else had used my own mouth to say them. And then I felt that someone lift my open palm in the air and send it on a collision course with Star Maker's right cheek. I felt a brief surge of dark magic, accompanied by my nerves tingling just when my hand connected with Star Maker's face. _Ouch, that hurt my hand!_ The sight of Star Maker crumpling and convulsing to the ground, clutching her cheek, illuminated how Alyssa described the feeling of being struck by dark magic. She compared it to being tased, with all your nerves going dead at once. A single touch from one of us would send anyone with a weak constitution reeling. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for Star Maker...

"Fine! Have it your way!" Star Fighter threatened. Star Maker removed her hand from her cheek: not only was her skin red around the imprint, a blackened palm print with a pulsating dark purple hue marked where I struck here. "I'll try to leave something for Sailor Moon to heal this time..."

With the other two Starlights watching on in disdain, I was left wishing I could teleport from here all the way back home to America. _What was I thinking?!_ Then, like an oasis appearing to a thirsty traveler in the desert, Alyssa dropped behind them without a sound. _Not a trace of Star Healer's attack marred her uniform._ Just when Star Fighter pointed her finger towards me, Alyssa reached behind her robes and revealed a small silver orb nestled between her fingers. I didn't recognize what she carried until the orb unsheathed several pulsating, curved dark magic blades. _Alyssa affectionately called it her 'windmill'...it reminded me of a ninja star, except with FAR larger blades._ The Starlights turned to face the low humming sound of Alyssa's weapon activating, just in time to see it hurling towards Sailor Star Maker...

"Look out!" Star Maker ducked just in time, but the spinning dark magic star instinctively flew behind Star Healer. She yelped in pain as Alyssa's windmill cut into her back and flew for Star Fighter next. Star Fighter also screeched when the weapon struck her shoulder, before her Windmill flew back into Alyssa's hand.

"Took you long enough," I muttered towards Alyssa as she made her way to my side. The two wounded Starlights dropped to their knees, clutching their wounds and leaving only a defiant Star Maker across from us.

"Sorry. You gave me just the opening I needed. Now to keep them from following us..." Alyssa whispered back. "Although...I said 'push their buttons', not 'wave the red flag in front of the charging bulls'. Not that I didn't enjoy the look on her face - "

"HEY! You...copied...Sailor Moon's attack," the wounded Sailor Star Fighter grunted to Alyssa mid-lecture, with Star Maker balling her fists and standing across from us with staggered legs in her fighting stance.

Alyssa retracted the dark magical blades of her Windmill by flicking her wrist, then held the orb over her head in the same place as the Starlights' gems on their beaded tiaras. "And the little piggy cried 'wee wee wee' all the way to the copyright office!"

"Don't mock her..." growled Sailor Star Fighter, rising to her feet. Sailor Star Maker finally charged forward with a high kick directed towards me. I tumbled under her leg before it made contact. _Gymnastics was saving my life, where being in combat for the first time seemed to make me forget what I learned more recently._

"Did I touch a nerve making fun of your girlfriend?" Alyssa teased Star Fighter. "You know boomerangs existed long before Sailor Moon started throwing her tiara around, right?"

Star Fighter encircled herself with a ring of magical stars, then lifted her right hand and pointed her finger towards the roof. "STAR SERIOUS LASER!" Her star ring shot upwards and came together into a ball of light around her hand. Alyssa teleported away just when Star Fighter fired the blast of energy at her, leaving a smoking crater in the wall where she stood.

Across from me, a single gem star appeared in front of Sailor Star Maker's chest out of thin air. I was ready to dodge it myself when she raised it above her head...but then she called out "Star Gentle...UTERUS!"

I was caught dumbstruck, trying to process just what Star Maker said for a split second. She shook me out of my trance when she spun around and took a sideways stance, preparing to launch her attack. Alyssa jumped in and tackled me out of the way, right before Star Maker sent numerous round blasts of light from her hand. White bursts of energy cratered the already-fissured castle wall behind us with thunderous clashes, wrecking even more of the Sailor Scouts' treasured artifacts in her barrage's wake. _These Starlights were powerful for sure...although..._

"Seriously, where do you come up with these names?!" I couldn't help asking Star Maker. She was left glaring angrily at the wall behind where she tried to strike us. _She was getting frustrated...though not announcing your attacks to us might be a good place to start._ Alyssa collided full-speed into Star Maker from the other side of the room, dark magic trailing behind my cell master like a rocket...though she stopped just short of slamming HER into the display case behind them, one of the few left undamaged. I heard Sailor Star Fighter grunt behind me, but I saw her charge towards Alyssa and Star Maker fighting hand-to-hand...stopping just short of joining the fray herself. _Star Fighter_ _was about to unleash another horribly-named attack!_

I tried to focus as Alyssa taught me, and with another surge of magic, I reappeared directly behind Sailor Star Fighter. _I teleported exactly where I meant to this time!_ Just when Star Fighter encircled herself in a ring of magical stars, I stepped atop a debris pile like a stepladder and hopped onto Star Fighter's back to interrupt her attack on Alyssa.

"Star Seri - hey, what do you think you're doing?! GET HER OFF!" Intent on putting her in a sleeper hold and knocking her out of the fight, I wrapped my right arm around Star Fighter's neck _. Now...what was I supposed to do with my other arm?_ Star Healer dashed towards us - I knew she wasn't going to wait for me to remember before prying me off of Star Fighter, so I wrapped my legs around Star Fighter to steer her away while clinging for dear life with my free arm. I could see Guardian Pluto's form emerge from the corridor, leaning on her rod as a crutch, turning her eyes towards Star Fighter colliding into what little hadn't been destroyed in her attempt to throw me off.

"You've caused...even more damage than my captors..." Guardian Pluto's voice was still weak, but I could hear her reprimand Star Fighter. Her eyes followed Alyssa, who was gracefully swerving and darting around artifacts while Star Maker plowed through everything in her way.

"You should worry more about the costumed freak-shows scurrying around your crumbling heap!" dissed Star Fighter. Glass shattered over my head when she intentionally fell backwards into the display case Alyssa had spared earlier, slamming me to the ground.

"STAR SENSITIVE INFERNO!" Star Healer turned her attention back to me, sending another attack towards me AND Star Fighter. Alyssa came to pull me away, leaving Star Fighter to take most of her ally's blast. _  
_  
"ENOUGH!" an angry Guardian Pluto demanded. She raised her rod again, but this time it was only Sailor Star Healer who was encased in a glowing prison.

"HEY!" a surprised Star Fighter called shouted at Guardian Pluto. "We were doing you a favor!"

"Indiscriminately blasting away at our sacred Millennium's treasures is no favor to me!" chiseled Guardian Pluto. "Right now, YOU represent the greater threat to the safety of this Castle!"

"She's been stalling us from the beginning..." a battered Star Maker accused Guardian Pluto. "Maybe she's harboring the fugitive we're after!"

"Are you truly that paranoid?" Guardian Pluto grasped her rod tightly. "Sailor Scouts or not, you three are in dire need of a lesson in respect..."

Alyssa tapped me on the shoulder. "There's our cue to go!" Star Fighter and Maker were trading blows with Guardian Pluto while she took swings at them with her staff when we left.

* * *

I followed Alyssa out of the artifact room and through the crumbling remains of Charon Castle... _no doubt worse for the wear thanks to the Starlights._

Alyssa raised her arm, ordering me to halt when we reached the same hallway where she found me. "Hold on, let me show you something." When Alyssa opened her palm, miniature holographic figures of the two Starlights battling Guardian Pluto sprung from her hand.

"Woah..." I couldn't help saying. The figure of a distant Sailor Star Healer held in stasis came into view as Alyssa's projection expanded to the edge of her glove.

"It's a sonar imprint. Genetics may be Doctor Tomoe's specialty, but he's got a solid head in other areas too. I planted a receiver on Star Maker when we were up close," Alyssa smirked. "Tithon always had disdain for technology, said we should rely on our fists and our wits. True...these things are almost as unstable as Tomoe himself, for instance, but they'll make snooping a lot easier. The hard part is actually getting one on them."  
 _  
"PLUTO DEADLY SCREAM!"_ A fifth woman's voice echoed through Alyssa's projection, and an enormous sphere-shaped projectile rocketed past the Starlights' image. The light blue mirage Sailor Pluto herself - larger and older in appearance than her Guardian, middle to late twenties maybe - marched into view on Alyssa's palm. "Guardian Pluto! You survived!"

"Sailor Pluto!" Her sprite fell to one knee, despite the less harsh tone the Sailor Scout herself took when she addressed her. "I failed you, Guardian of Time. Your Castle was nearly destroyed on my watch."

"You haven't failed me, Guardian Pluto. My Castle still stands because you remained vigilant, when the rest of us became distracted from our mission. I know who was responsible for the destruction here...there is nothing for me to forgive," assured Sailor Pluto. Even if I wasn't in the room, I could feel her demeanor turn sour again when she faced the Starlights. "You three, on the other hand..."

"We tried to stop the ones who did this! SHE let them get away by attacking us!" snapped Sailor Star Fighter.

"You realize that as Outer Scouts, our mission is to keep the universe safe from ALL intruders?" Sailor Pluto continued her guardians' reprimand of the Starlights. "You may have helped us before, but that does not excuse what you've done here!"

"You think Logan's with Sailor Pluto?" I asked Alyssa. A chill ran through my spine at the ideahe was here...

"I think she's solo," Alyssa whispered briskly."Even if he was, now's not the time."I couldn't help looking up at Charon's statue again, the look on his face as Queen Serenity struck him down...

"Take us to Sailor Moon and we'll explain everything!" Star Fighter's voice insisted from Alyssa's projection.

"Sailor Moon is...unavailable at present. She has...mission...focus..." Sailor Pluto's voice cut out at the worst possible time...

"These imprints don't last much longer than Tomoe's old monsters either," Alyssa sighed as her illumination fizzled away. "We've overstayed our welcome anyway. Now I know the Moon brat and her Sailor Scumbags aren't wasting any time hunting us down. If the Starlights ally with Sailor Moon, she won't need Charon's help. We're resistant to their powers, not immune to them."

 _With the Starlights helping Sailor Moon, if she was as powerful as the Shadows described, she could just vaporize us. And if they had no more use for Logan, they might get rid of him just like Queen Serenity did. I had to reach him before that happened._ "So what will we do?"

"We'll start by opening a portal back home. This'll take a minute." Alyssa's arm glowed with a dark blue hue when she reached forward and opened her palm. _Unlike the Sailor Scouts' version, the most powerful Shadow masters could move about the universe without joining with others...although it required a massive exertion of energy on her part._ A singularity-like rift opened, swirling and growing steadily in size... _impossible to miss if the Starlights and Plutos came around looking for us_. "For now, the Starlights just want to find this fugitive from their homeworld. We find 'em first, then dangle 'em in front of the Starlights like a carrot on a stick to lead them AWAY from the others."

"That sounds a little cold, Lyssa," I admittedto her. _Even if this fugitive WAS as bad as the Starlights made him or her out to be, I still didn't like the idea of using someone as bait._

Alyssa gave me a half smile, distant from the glow of confidence she eluded earlier. "It's the best I've got right now. Tithon's cell had all the hard-hitters...it we take the Scouts head on, we'll lose. Finding this fugitive won't be so easy: the Starlights hid among the people of Earth for months...as a music group I'm sure you heard of."

"God, I hope they weren't one I liked," I groaned.

Alyssa panted slightly from exhaustion, but was no less luminous when her singularity charge reached outwards to form a full long-range portal. "I need someone who knows how to pin down Kinmokuan energy signatures. Luckily I know just the guy..."

I grabbed Alyssa's shoulder before she walked off into her wormhole. "Wait...you're not gonna ask that crazy doctor, are you? Working on dial-up, by the time he find out who we're looking for, Sailor Moon will have died of old age!"

"Just put your nice face on," snickered Alyssa. "We're asking in person..."

 **To Be Continued**

* * *

 **A/N:** Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends, and thanks everyone for coming back! Sorry this chapter took me longer to finish than I planned. I got laid off last Thursday, and it took me a while to bounce back. At least there's one silver lining: I'll have some more time to focus on writing while looking for another job.

Writing an interesting Starlight battle scene proved more challenging than I thought. I re-watched some Starlight fight scenes in the anime for references, but most of them fell into a "one and done" pattern: the Starlights cripple the enemy with a single attack, Sailor Moon heals them, the end :/ My goal was to show Alyssa as a formidable and crafty opponent without retconning the Starlights to be weaker. I'm still not 100% sure I've grasped the Starlights as characters, or if this fight scene came out the way I wanted it to, so any feedback and constructive criticism is more than welcome!

Stephanie is proving an interesting character for me to write out too. I hadn't planned on her being so "Scout-like" at first, but it fits her role with Alyssa as the "Anti-Scouts" as Lisseas described them I saw Logan as someone more naturally inclined to being a spy: someone more reserved who took more readily to combat and cunning. I liked the contrast with Stephanie, someone who has the right mindset but has to learn more from the ground up. I hope you're enjoying seeing the universe of Sailor Moon through her eyes too.

And yes, as much as I wanted to "DiC-ify" the Starlights' attack names at first, picturing the reactions in my head was too funny for me to leave out!

One more note: I entered SoSM into a fanfiction contest on ! If you happen to be a member, look for the fandom2 contest if you'd like to vote for me, getting some votes would sure brighten my day And the contest's there if you have your own story you'd like to enter!

Now off to stuff my face with ham (yeah, no turkey :/) and mashed potatoes, Serena-style! Adios for now!


	3. The Sad Scientist

**Chapter 3: The Sad Scientist's Lair**

 ** _Stephanie_**

Again, nauseousness hit me like a fist to my stomach after I stumbled out of Alyssa's long-range portal. _I dare not vomit in front of my trainer, though, especially in light of her graceful landing_. If Alyssa shared in my distress, she hid it well...I could imagine her voice narrating her thoughts, either disappointment or mockery over my plight, all while hiding them behind a non-expressive mask. _"You wouldn't last two days in Tithon's cell", one of the full Shadows once called out to me._

 _No. If she knew what I was thinking, she'd tell me to stop obsessing over what other people thought about me._ I banished such doubts from my mind, only to realize they had been a distraction from the frigid air around me.

At the rumble of a snowplow pushing through the street, Alyssa pulled me behind the corner of an adjacent building. The bustling smoke of construction ahead, and the metal scaffolding around a partially-built megacomplex had drawn Alyssa's stare, snowflakes dancing across her robes before gliding to join their fellows accumulating on the ground. _I felt bad for the workers in yellow hats, standing atop the rails at varying heights, hammering away for hours while exposed to the freezing cold. This was supposed to be summer._ I would have thought we were visiting the Arctic Circle if we hadn't landed in the middle of a construction zone. And I would have thought this was Scandinavia if I hadn't noticed the kanji style letters alongside English typed font written on the canvas.

"Have you been to Japan before, Steph?" Alyssa asked me.

I shook my head. "With all the bills I have to pay, I haven't even THOUGHT about leaving New York, much less the country."

"Today's your lucky day. Welcome to Tokyo, the Sailor Scouts' breeding ground," Alyssa smirked. "This was just a smoking crater a year ago. They say no one wanted to build here because people thought this place was cursed with bad spirits. Mugen School once stood here. Doctor Tomoe was a Professor, though the academy also doubled as a front for the Heart Snatchers. Played no small part in the explosion. Heh...how much you wanna bet they're turning this into ANOTHER shopping plaza?"  
 _  
_"I don't know much about the Japanese," I admitted. _Of course I was familiar with their music. We all heard about global superstars like Takara Swiftetsu, Katsu Paiji and James Taylor...and of course, there was that band every tone-deaf teenage girl went nuts over..._ "What were they called? The Tri Lights?"

"What are you talking about?" Alyssa raised a puzzled eyebrow towards me. _Thinking out loud again! No way the Sailor Scouts got where they are going off on tangents like this. I need to focus if I have any chance at beating them!_ _I knew that if I could read Alyssa's facial expressions, it was because she wanted me to._

"I can't afford to lose a bet with you," I answered. "You give us peanuts!"

Alyssa crossed her arms and shot me a pouty face. "Oh, I'm sorry if you thought we could afford to rent you a hotel room before every mission!"

"How about every OTHER mission?" I grinned like the Cheshire Cat to tease her...even if deep down, part of me hoped she might consider it...

"Maybe if we double our cookie sales." Alyssa mockingly rolled her eyes, and landed them on my arms crossed over my chest. _She knew I was cold...the Shadow robes kept us warm, but they weren't enough._ Alyssa glanced over to the construction site. "We have to cut through that construction site. Tomoe's lab is just under it...there's our opening! Stay close!"

I followed Alyssa as she darted towards the street. We dashed right in between four workers on break holding warm coffee mugs, just after they split up and started walking towards opposite sides. Alyssa motioned for me to halt in a room where a lone construction worker struggled to suppress his shivering. He sat on a cooler besides the exposed metal frames draped in canvas, our only shelter from the elements.

"Looks like his break just started," Alyssa whispered. "He's sitting right on top of where we need to go. The good news is he looks like he's just about to doze off anyway. These guys have been working hard for a while, nobody would blame him if he passed out in this weather..."

"Woah, Lyssa..." I reached out for her shoulder when I figured what she was hinting at. "You're not thinking of - "

"Killing him? Do I look like Queen Beryl to you, with the horns protruding from my shoulders?" Alyssa teased.

 _Queen Beryl...who was she again? Oh right...the woman who destroyed the Moon Kingdom and tried to conquer Earth again in the present, for those who believed that part of history. Some Shadows admired her for assaulting the Palace, though they did so privately. The more-widely held view was that the Sailor Scouts saved us the trouble of taking her down...though the Shadows also held that the Sailor Scouts only did so because they viewed Queen Beryl as competition._

"STEPH!" Alyssa hissed and snapped her fingers in front of my face. "What's with you today? Are you still hurting over Logan?"

Before I could answer, Alyssa tilted her head towards the man with the yellow hat. "That worker's not leaving anytime soon, and YOU need to practice your sleeper holds. Get to it!"

 _For me, practice was when the other would tap out before they could lose consciousness. Sometimes Alyssa would pair me off with other recruits...one time, when I was the practice dummy, my partner held me in a sleeper hold even after Alyssa started shouting at him to let go. I felt myself going numb just when Alyssa pried him off. The others whispered that Alyssa requested his transfer to Tithon's cell..._

After calming myself with a deep breath out, I gulped and nodded quietly. I crept up beside the worker so that I was angled behind him.

"Make sure he's alone!" Alyssa hissed at the perfect volume, loud enough for me to hear but not enough so my target would. After quickly checking my surroundings - like I should have done first - I started tiptoeing to close the gap when Alyssa called out again:

"Remember how I showed you...compress the arteries on the side of his neck. Don't worry about how big his is, and don't close his airway...you're not strangling him. You have noise cover, so use your other hand to lock him in the hold."

"Sorry..." I couldn't help whispering an apology in the worker's ear when I was directly behind him. _Hopefully, he wouldn't remember when he woke up._ He flinched when he heard my voice, but my right arm immediately encircled his neck _._ Just like Alyssa told me, I planted my left arm behind his neck to push his neck further into my forearm, instead of covering his mouth when we needed to do this quietly. _At least it's easier to remember my training without the Starlights blasting away at me._ I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes when the construction worker clasped my upper arms in a desperate attempt to throw me off. I thought he might succeed, but his struggling quickly grew faint while his gasps for breath grew more shallow. Within ten seconds, he loosened his grip around my upper arm, then dropped his arm entirely after his panting ceased.

"Let go, Steph!" Alyssa dashed over - not making a noise - to loosen my grip around his neck and help me lower him to the floor gently. "Relax your grip as soon as the other guy loses consciousness, otherwise you might cause brain damage. Still...big improvement over your last try."

 _Good thing Alyssa was there to remind me. That's why we trained so much in unarmed combat and sleeper holds: while the Sailor Scouts just bludgeon their way through everything, we were more precise. Still, they had saved a lot of lives...at least, when I did hear others talking about them back home, it was in a positive light. How could most of the world be wrong about them?_

 _For the same reason most of my classmates shunned Logan, maybe. They just can._

Alyssa moved the cooler that the worker had been sitting on, then she extended her right arm and opened her fist. A five-pointed star, glowing like a flame of natural gas, appeared in thin air. Alyssa closed her hand and drew a crescent moon shape around it. Another purple-black portal, albeit a smaller one this time, opened underneath her. With a flash of light, we both landed in a pitch-black hallway leading into a maze of walls. I could barely see...

"Don't get lost," Alyssa warned. "I sealed Tomoe's lab with dark magic and created this labyrinth just in case the prima donna squad went snooping around the old Mugen School zone. Drop the robes when we reach the lab. Remember, he's not a Shadow, so avoid bringing up business matters...leave that to me."

"Does he know we're fighting the Sailor Scouts?" I asked.

"I...haven't expressly told him," Alyssa conceded. She halted in her tracks and blankly stared ahead in the darkness. "They have a complicated history - even I'm not sure whether he loves them or hates them. His past comes out in bits and pieces. I haven't fully debriefed him yet, you've seen how he gets when he brings up his past. When the time is right..."

"So, was his ramble about being possessed by some demon true?" I asked Alyssa when she picked up the pace again.

"More or less. At least, it synced up with Tithon's report," Alyssa corrected herself. "You know how it is: he kept tabs on the Sailor Scouts, including the entire Heart Snatcher mess. The rest of us played our parts far away from his zone. He didn't tell us much about the Scouts beyond their capabilities. But the giant crater where Mugen School used to be was hard to miss."

"He must have known who they really were. It...seems wrong that the Spymaster wouldn't share the Sailor Scouts' true identities with his own head of intelligence," I admitted to her.

"Knowing Logan's with them should make it easier to find out," Alyssa suggested. "The Spymaster didn't trust everyone would stick to the plan. He thought most of us were just in it for revenge. We had our arguments...I asked him if he was recruiting Tomoe after I read his last report on the Heart Snatchers. Tithon replied he wasn't worth the trouble. Said Tomoe was a basket case and couldn't fight worth a damn...but I thought he was wasting a good opportunity. When Tithon found out I went over his head, he revoked my security clearance...but he let me continue working with Tomoe as long as I stayed off his radar."

"I was wondering how you and Tomoe started working together if he was in Tithon's area." Even if we were in the dark, I resisted the urge to smirk. _Maybe that's why she was so lenient with me, compared to what I expected from other lead Shadows. She had disobeyed direct orders from the Spymaster himself._

At the door to Tomoe's lab - a massive, metal door that looked like the entrance to a fallout shelter - Alyssa and I willed our Shadow robes away, and our civilian clothes reformed. _I should have stuck to pants like Alyssa always did. She mocked me for wearing skirts, and the floral dress was already a bad idea where it was below average temperature at home._

"I thought the Spymaster was too emotionally invested in the old Moon Kingdom. Maybe even the idea that we somehow NEED the Sailor Scouts," Alyssa grimaced, "but he understood how things were when the royal brats ran the universe. We mostly referred to them as Sailor GUARDIANS because we never saw them outside the palace grounds. They didn't roam the countryside defending us faceless masses, they only cared about their dainty Princess. And that's never going to change."

I put an ear to the scientist's door when I thought I heard pop music playing from inside. _It WAS pop music...highly unfitting compared to what I expected Doctor Tomoe would listen to. Though in my defense, it sounded like 90s pop..._

"I should warn you, I always walk in on Doctor Tomoe doing something weird. The fact he never leaves made sealing his lab a lot easier, but he never even asks to go outside." _Alyssa was worried about him...I knew she was._ Unlike before, Alyssa didn't need any magic tricks to open the door this time...

* * *

Alyssa promised me Tomoe's lab was a museum, and she wasn't wrong. Lines of empty beakers and test tubes sat on the massive table in the center of the room. On the floor, I saw a battered, metallic-gray suitcase with the same black star-shaped hole Alyssa had created with magic when she opened the lab. And behind the table, in front of a glowing computer screen, stood the man himself with his white labcoat-covered back turned to us. Sitting on the stool next to Tomoe, I saw a gargantuan suitcase-sized boombox with two loudspeakers... _I remember seeing a picture of some poor man having to carry that monstrosity around just to play music outdoors! And it had a cassette player! Not even a CD player...CASSETTES!_

Enamored as I was by Tomoe's piece of history, I was pulled away when the mad doctor started shaking his hips and SINGING. Quite badly, I might add:

"I turn around - when you call my name,  
Suddenly the world is not too quite the same,  
The sun is bright,  
The sky is blue,  
Cuz in my life, I have you - "

"Darn it!" Doctor Tomoe rushed over to his boombox when the song ground to a halt. "It needs new batteries AGAIN?!" _Well, some things haven't changed._ Still oblivious to anyone else standing in the room, Tomoe dropped his head. "Mimet...this was your song..."

"Who's Mimet?" I whispered to Alyssa.

"I think she was one of the Heart Snatchers," Alyssa whispered back. "None of his assistants survived."  
 _  
_Summoned by Alyssa tapping her fingers on the table, Doctor Tomoe leaped and stared at her with the same eerie, illuminated balls of white where his eyes should have been. "Alyssa! You're always welcome here, but you pick the strangest times to walk in!"

I thought he'd earned himself a sarcastic rebuke, but Alyssa gave him as warm a smile as I'd ever seen her give. "Maybe it's time we found you a lab partner, Doctor. I already started making a list of qualified - "

"Thank you, Alyssa. I appreciate the concern, but I'm not looking for a new assistant right now. I've found I work better alone." Doctor Tomoe bowed when he noticed me standing behind her. "Ah, I remember your face from the webcam. It's a pleasure to meet you in person, Stephanie!"

"H-hi, Doctor Tomoe." I smiled back shyly. I extended my hand to shake his, but I quickly retracted my arm. _I wasn't sure if handshakes were OK, or if the Japanese considered it an invasion of privacy. If I'd known we were coming here, I would have studied up more on their customs._ I took a peek at the glowing computer screen behind the overshadowed scientist. _Alyssa wasn't kidding...he had an old gray monitor too! The screen looked undersized compared to the rest! The crammed gray desk tower sitting beside it even had a floppy disk drive! Not a DVD drive, not a CD drive...one of the most renowned scientists of the modern era, as Alyssa described him, was still using FLOPPY DISKS!_

Beside Tomoe's computer tower was something I wouldn't expect to find in an attic buried under mountains of dust and cobwebs, but one that caught my eye nonetheless: an oak picture frame carrying the photo of a very beautiful girl. Just shy of her teenage years, the girl's raven-colored hair radiated a purple hue mirroring her deep purple eyes, and was cut just above her shoulders. _Similar in length to mine...except hers was straight and sleek, hair like I always envied. Not the curly and tangled mop on my head that cost me hours of precious sleep every school morning to straighten out._

Doctor Tomoe brought his overshadowed face into the light when he noticed my interest in her. No longer was he shrouded in pitch black: he appeared middle-aged, younger than I expected, though his hair was white and his skin a pasty tan. No longer were his eyes glowing circles, either: his irises carried the same violet hue that the girl shared with Alyssa. "Her name is Hotaru. She's my daughter."

"She's beautiful!" I beamed. "And she has your eyes, Lyssa!"

"Hotaru always looks so deep in thought, just like her mother..." Tomoe had fallen into a trance himself, reminiscing about his family. "My wife died many years ago, but I know she'd be so proud."

"How old is your daughter?" I asked him.

I quickly realized I'd asked the wrong question when the same glow that briefly revealed his true face receded so quickly. "I'm...not exactly sure. She was only a baby when I handed her off, but here, she's...sorry, my memories of that time are still out of place. They must be. Hopefully, time will heal my fractured mind where my doctors failed. I know that I haven't seen my sweet pea in four years...but she's in good hands. I'm sure of it."

 _Four years? Handed her off?_

Doctor Tomoe cleared his throat. "Now Alyssa, normally these meet-and-greets are accompanied by a request. What do you have for me this time?"

"Give me a little credit, Doctor. I'm your only social life." _Alyssa framed her comment as a joke...but from our earlier talk, she meant it. Maybe she hoped he would take the hint._ "I need you to help me track someone...before they're captured by an evil force from beyond our solar system."

"An evil force?" Reeling in shock, Doctor Tomoe sagged atop his desk. _He knew more about the nature of our work than Alyssa hinted at before...at least he did now...though she stopped short of mentioning the 'S' words._

"Could this finally be the moment I've waited for?" Doctor Tomoe pondered. His voice rose high with excitement as he spoke: "It will take many more to atone for all the lives I endangered in the name of world domination...but instead of claiming his pure heart for ruthless monsters, I can help save one person. I can tell Hotaru that I helped SAVE the world...and I was one of the good guys. Hehehehe...hmmmuahahaha...MUAHAHAHA! AAAAAHAHAHAHA!"

"That laugh won't convince anyone..." I couldn't help uttering under my breath as the former professor went on cackling like a cartoon villain with his arms extended outwards.

Alyssa sauntered forward and lightly tapped his shoulder. "Doc?"

Doctor Tomoe abruptly halted his manic laughter with a deep exhale. "I tried not to that time."

Alyssa gently patted his back as if it was puppy's head. "I know you're trying."

"Still..." Doctor Tomoe took a deep breath. _He needed it after all that laughing._ "This sounds more like a job for the Sailor Scouts."

I was no prodigy at reading people - _nowhere near where Charon or Alyssa were supposed to be_ \- but there was no mistaking the sour flash on Alyssa's face when he mentioned the Scouts. "We wouldn't be here if we could count on them! The Sailor Scouts only 'help' when it's convenient for them, and even THEN only when the enemy comes to their doorstep!"  
 _  
At least she wasn't outright lying - or asking me to do the same - thought it was only half the truth. Of course the Sailor Scouts wouldn't help us. After four years of silence, what had the former Spymaster done to awaken the sleeping dragons?_

Doctor Tomoe clutched the picture frame of his daughter with one hand, then the temple of his forehead with the other. "The woman...the one who I left Hotaru with..."

"Doctor?" Now it was my hand draped on his shoulder. _What about her?_

Instead of answering, Tomoe shook his head and set the picture frame back down. "I suppose the Sailor Scouts aren't always dependable. We shouldn't wait around, at any rate. Worst case, we're duplicating their efforts. I hope you and your friends aren't getting in over your heads, Alyssa."

 _And that was that. No more secrets from his past, but no questions about who WE were...or who our enemy was, despite Alyssa's warning not to volunteer that information._

"They're humanoid, but they're not from our solar system. Wherever they come from, they're very powerful," Alyssa informed him. She unveiled a small grid of wax paper sitting on her thumb. _She might have taken a skin sample during our battle with the Starlights.  
_  
"Mimete used a computer program to narrow the search for pure heart carriers back in the day. Maybe you can use it to run a similar search...of course, finding a worldwide sensor net powerful enough is another story," answered Doctor Tomoe. "Unless you know someone."

"As a matter of fact, I do," Alyssa beamed. _She meant herself._

"To the communications room, then." Doctor Tomoe rose from his chair and stretched before chaperoning us towards the back of his lab. Besides more empty vials and test tubes littered on the floor, I noticed a smaller metallic suitcase with the same black star insignia. This one had a golden flamingo-shaped insignia nestled on the star.

Alyssa about-faced my way while Doctor Tomoe tapped his hand against the door knob leading to his communications room. "If you're looking for brownie points, there is something you can do to help us while we work."

 _I could always use brownie points with Alyssa._ "Sure, anything I can do!"

"I love when you're so agreeable!" I'd pleased my trainer...though that was not destined to last. We found ourselves in another room fit for a museum display... _perhaps one day, throngs of young history-lovers would tour the Doctor's lab as they did Thomas Edison's. Logan was a history buff...he might have loved this place._ I noticed a damaged gray phone, still connected to the base by a curled cord and barely held together by scotch tape, sitting in the corner. _It looked as if Tomoe crushed it in his own hand...not that it would surprise me_. There was a massive gray device that looked like an earthquake machine, and another with vacuum tubes dragged straight from the set of a Frankenstein movie.

The Doctor himself reached over in the direction of a table on the opposite side of the room. Lying on top of it was another massive audio power amplifier, complete with knobs, switches and screens with needle displays. After turning one of the knobs, Tomoe sat himself at another old computer like the one at his desk and typed away furiously on the keyboard. _The only thing missing from this room was a Morse key._ But the part that stood out the most was lying on the floor: a plastic mat with six rows of numbered and multi-colored dots. Then I caught Alyssa smirking at me...

* * *

"Place your right foot on yellow three," Alyssa directed. However long it had been since we started, I could already see how 'Twister' earned its name. While Doctor Tomoe leaned over me with his back in a U-shape, I teetered atop the mat on all fours. Both of my palms were stretched wide on one side of the mat, while my legs were criss-crossed on the opposite. Content with letting me 'learn as we went', Alyssa refrained from playing herself: instead, she refereed from her seat at Tomoe's computer. She sat there smugly carrying the square board with the spinner, calling out which cursed spot on the mat we had to move our hand or foot to next.

"Alyssa," I groaned, "do you mind explaining how THIS makes your job easier?"

I nearly strained my neck twisting it just for Alyssa to reply with a nonchalant shrug. "Unless one of you is a licensed masseuse, this is one way to spend the time. Put your left hand on red four, Doctor Tomoe." Now Doctor Tomoe was awkwardly crossed over me.

 _I could think of another: CONVINCE HIM TO GET A NEW COMPUTER!_ "How come you aren't playing with him, then? Or maybe, you could play this with me and he could get the search done faster!"

"Alyssa's always pitting her new friends against me," Tomoe replied. _More like torturing them._ "Perhaps Alyssa fears she'll hurt my feelings if she clinches the world record."

"You hold the world record for this game?" I asked.

"...Well, technically the one who possessed me holds it, but I'll beat that no-good, stretched-out, plant-shaped marshmallow at his own game!" Tomoe raved.

"Let's curb the Heart Snatcher talk for now." Alyssa spun again. "Stephanie, put your left foot on blue three."

"You're a sadist, Alyssa!" _I deeply regretted wearing a skirt now with my legs stretched open like this. I launched into a rant towards my trainer who bemused herself over putting me in compromising positions._ "SCREW THE BROWNIE POINTS! I HATE THIS GAME!"

"Four minutes in and you're already complaining?! I was wondering how a nationally-ranked cheerleader would do at twister!" _I was lucky Alyssa had a sense of humor...not that I could picture Tithon subjecting me to this, but he would have flogged me if the stories about him were true._ Alyssa spun the wheel again. "Place your left hand on green four, Tomoe."

"You must be limber, Stephanie." I felt Tomoe's sleeve rub uncomfortably against my bare thigh as he reached for his spot. _If only his stupid computer would hurry up find whoever we were looking for already!_

"Found him!" Still clutching the board, Alyssa rotated the chair towards Tomoe's computer...but she was annoyed when she heard me drop out of position and crawl out under Doctor Tomoe. "You could have at least tried, Steph!"

"You're the one who keeps telling me to stay focused on the main goal!" I quipped back. Alyssa gave me a bitter glare as Tomoe conceded, boosting himself to his feet so he could scan the results with her.

"Hmm, the signature's faint, but there's no mistake. Your extraterrestrial visitor...is on his way here," said Doctor Tomoe. _Here?! Why would the Starlights' target flee HERE, THE SAILOR SCOUT'S HOME BASE?_ I dusted myself off and straightened my blouse, itching to get out of the lab...but Alyssa wasn't budging from her spot.

"Thanks, Doctor. I have another favor to ask you..." _I couldn't know for sure, but when she thanked him, I thought I heard a brief flicker of wariness in her voice before she corrected herself._  
 _  
_"As long as you're not asking me to steal pure hearts, I'm all ears," Doctor Tomoe joked. But Alyssa wouldn't return his smile either...

Alyssa reached underneath her robes and unveiled a small metallic cube, a miniature version of the crates and suitcases I saw outside. _Maybe it was one of the assets she sought to collect from Charon Castle._ "I found a few of your samples kept in suspension inside this container."

"Doom Tree samples? No...it can't be." Doctor Tomoe twisted one side as if it were a Rubik's Cube and removed a single vial carrying a sphere-shaped cell in pink fluid. "The progenitor to my Daimon Pods! I...can dispose of these."

"Doctor...please listen to what I have to say first _._ " _Even Alyssa was straining to retain her calm, stoic composure now. She'd warned me against bringing up his past...now I could see why. Whatever she was about to say next was bound to set him off..._ "We might need them. We may need your Daimon Pods."

"What threat to the universe could possibly worth bringing back THESE monsters for?!" Doctor Tomoe vigorously shook his head 'no' as he spoke. "I've never said 'no' to your requests before, Alyssa! But this is insane!"

"I'm not stealing Pure Hearts, Doctor Tomoe!" Alyssa pleaded. "The Sailor Scouts won't protect us from what's coming! Please believe me! I'm asking you to resume your research, that way we're ready in case we need them! Only as a deterrent, and an absolute last resort if necessary to keep our people safe!"

"OUR people?!" Tomoe asked. I could see Tomoe's unshadowed face studying mine...as if he was asking me how I felt about all this without quizzing me out loud. I shoved aside the temptation to look away because I didn't want to make Alyssa look bad...but Alyssa had sprung this request out of the blue on me, too. _Creating our own monsters to throw against the Sailor Scouts - who he didn't know Alyssa sought to protect us from - was a slippery slope. How easy would it be for the Sailor Scouts to paint US as the bad guys?_

Tomoe returned the vial to its container and snapped it shut. "I need to think about it, Alyssa. Even if I can replicate this one and rework the creatures' DNA so they won't target Pure Heart Crystals...I would be treading dangerously close to the work I swore I'd never touch again."

"I understand, Doctor," empathized Alyssa. "Just...I know this will take time. And we're running short. Whoever's after the one we're seeking...they'll come for us next." Alyssa brushed past him but halted to study me. "I know you're not comfortable with this, either. Sorry I didn't tell you ahead of time."

"I get it," I nodded. "We're Shadows. You tell us what we need to know to accomplish the mission, nothing more. That way if the Scouts interrogate us, we don't have to lie."

"That's true, but it's not that I don't trust you," assured Alyssa. "I was mulling it over on the way here. Tomoe's a huge help, but it'll all be for naught if the Sailor Scouts win."

"Alyssa." Doctor Tomoe called her over from behind the computer desk. _Whatever he found had sidelined his temper...for now_. "I took a closer look at the results and I noticed an anomaly."

"What sort of anomaly?" Alyssa joined him by the computer.

"Looks like an energy scan...brief but very high intensity. I didn't catch it on our first review..." Tomoe admitted.

Alyssa leaned over to type on his keyboard...and gulped loudly after she finished. "I can see why you missed it."

"How?" asked Doctor Tomoe. "I don't recognize this energy signature."

"Let me check it out. I'm stepping out for a couple hours, but I'll be right back, Doc." Alyssa smiled when she left him, but instantly flipped it upside down when she came to nudge me back into his lab. "He pinged our location."

My heart skipped a beat when Alyssa said that. "Who? One of the Starlights?"

"No. Charon." I felt as if Alyssa just shoved me onto a bed of nails with that answer. "He must have had help: Tithon warned us that one of the Inner Scouts - Mercury, I think - carries a tactical supercomputer. I encrypted our sensor net so she couldn't get in...but I didn't account for a thousand-year-old supercomputer like the one Charon's rumored to have had."

"Hold on," I paused her. "You're telling me Charon has a thousand-year old supercomputer that still works?" _And I was impressed with Tomoe's._

"At least their scan wasn't focused enough to get our exact location, but even those dimwits must realize I'm somewhere in the city." Alyssa reached down and picked up a pair of Tomoe's old suitcases. "They'll hone in on the Mugen site as a place of interest but they might not know about this lab, or about Tomoe. Maybe they'll think I'm just digging for scraps. I can lead them away from here."

"What about the runaway?" I asked Alyssa.

"We'll worry about the runaway after. And I remember I promised you'd get your chance to talk to Logan...but you're not ready for the Inner Scouts if it goes sideways," Alyssa insisted. "I need you to stay here and keep Tomoe occupied. I'll lock it down from here and head outside."

"On your own?" I asked.

"Like I said before...I've been at this a VERY long time.I'll be back, Steph." Alyssa bolted out of his lab and locked the door ahead.  
 _  
_Doctor Tomoe was fidgeting when I returned to the communications room. "When Alyssa came to me first, I didn't ask any questions. I was wasting away at home, missing my daughter, all while the memories of the nightmare I put her through resurfaced one fractured piece at a time. Then Alyssa appeared to offer me a new laboratory and supply me with whatever I needed. She even agreed I could rebuild underneath the site of my old one. She gave me what I needed to make things right. How could I refuse her offer, then?"

"You can still do a lot of good from here," I assured him. "Alyssa's not going to take all this away because you refused her once."

"I suspect she's not the sort of person who uses others, then tosses them aside when she's done. Not like others I've known." I followed Tomoe's eyes back down to the Twister mat. "Our last game ended...abruptly, wouldn't you say? I'm sorry to hear you're not a fan."

"Maybe I was a little impatient..." _Please don't ask me to play again._ My rumbling stomach interrupted our conversation. "I don't suppose you have food?"

"I have some genetically-modified carrots in my study." _Ugh._ "I also have a stockpile of more edible TV dinners...if you're up for a rematch."

I crossed my arms. "I don't respond well to blackmail. Besides, we don't have a referee."

"I wasn't blackmailing you!" Doctor Tomoe insisted. "Did you know that one TV dinner contains more than your recommended daily intake of sodium? I merely suggested we work them off ahead of time! And...I'm confident a nationally-ranked cheerleader could challenge the world record if she put the effort into it."

Doctor Tomoe seemed oblivious to my deep sigh before I stepped across from him, standing at the opposite edge of the map. "Good." He placed the square on the ground and spun the needle with his toe. "Now, put your right arm on blue three..."  
 **  
To Be Continued**

* * *

 **A/N:** Hope you enjoyed my latest chapter, and the Easter Eggs sprinkled throughout ;) Doctor Tomoe's one-episode appearance, like Chibiusa's (Rini's) abrupt exit from Sailor Stars, didn't sit well with me. I wanted to bring some more resolution to his story, and set him on the path to redemption even as the quirks that made him my favorite Sailor Moon villain are stubbornly clinging to him :) One trait that set "Tomoe" apart from other villains was how he bonded with the Witches 5 and Kaorinite. I wanted to show that he does miss them (disclaimer: Mimette sang the same song as Doctor Tomoe in episode 107 of the English dub, so credit goes to Cloverway) and I hope his presence cements the more personal relationships on the Shadow side this time.

Doctor Tomoe wants redemption, but I think he differs from those Sailor Moon has previously healed in that he's actively seeking it. He's not content with returning to a mundane, unempowered life...a recurring theme and fear among all the Shadows, including Charon. Sailor Pluto took his daughter at the beginning of Stars, and the writers left us to wonder if Hotaru had any contact with her father AT ALL. In a story where neither side is completely right or wrong, I'm toying with the idea that maybe Pluto tread down a morally gray path...maybe she was 'protecting' Hotaru from her still mentally unstable father, or maybe she saw Doctor Tomoe holding Sailor Saturn back from who we needed to be. I'm not 100% sure how I'll answer that myself.

In case it was unclear, I settled on revealing Alyssa and Stephanie are unaware of the Sailor Scouts' civilian identities. As much as Tithon was the antagonist last story, I think he cared enough about Sailor Moon that he saw the need to shelter her to SOME degree from the more extreme members of his own team. Even the Sailor Scouts have their divides (the compassionate Inners vs the dedicated Outers and borderline ruthless Starlights), so I think it's fair to reason that Tithon's cell included the more vehemently anti-Moon Kingdom members. This means Alyssa's unaware of the massive conflict of interests here: how ironic it would be if Doctor Tomoe (unknowingly) cloned monsters to fight his own daughter, along with the other Sailor Scouts, as he desperately seeks to redeem himself in her eyes. I thought Alyssa would stray too far along the lines of the 'villain' if she knew, and we get to see her response when she finds out.

Looks like Stephanie's getting a break: Logan and the Sailor Scouts return next chapter :) see you then! Thanks for those who continue to support me: please review, send me a note, or click the the follow/favorite button for my story if you enjoyed it! It really does help keep me going :)


	4. We're Back! Miss Us?

**Chapter 4: We're Back! Miss Us?**

 _ **Logan**  
_  
Clinging to a formation of stalagmites near the cave roof, I watched my blue-haired genius friend tinker with the circuitry of my millennia-old supercomputer below. She had become so fixated on her work that she hadn't even noticed I teleported away from her side just seconds before. From my vantage point, I could see Lita, Raye, Mina and Hotaru plastering over one of the final bare cave walls with white decor. _They had asked me about turning my former lair into a joint base for the Sailor Scouts, but I could already see they were going to have the majority stake. It certainly looked a lot brighter already!_

"Logan! Come see this!" Amy rolled out from under one of the computer panels, still dented from the Spymaster's attack. She unplugged one of the wires from her own light blue pocket supercomputer, and her eyes finally widened at the realization that I was not there. I chose that moment to loosen my grasp on the stalagmites, descending upon her with my fist extended. Amy yelped but sidestepped out of the way of my 'strike' just when I landed. She resumed her guard, but relaxed when she saw it was only me testing her.

"OK, you caught me off guard again," my friend sighed. I waved a hand to the others, letting them know there was nothing serious, while they resumed working in the background. "I still get so wrapped up in what I'm doing..."

"You can't afford to let that happen," I warned her, taking a gentle pace towards her as I spoke. "Though you reacted quickly enough. Why did you hook your computer up?"

Amy still held her pocket computer in her hand. "I tried hooking it up to your sensor net and I intercepted a high-intensity sensor scan. Yours reaches just outside city limits. This one was far more widespread and powerful, though the signal was extremely brief. I think we should look into this."

"Just you and me?" I asked.

"No, we should call a group meeting," said Amy. "We can't discount the possibility a remnant Shadow cell may have set up in Tokyo, or we may have a new enemy on our hands."

"I don't think the remaining Shadows would risk a direct confrontation so quickly. Losing Tithon was a major blow," I suggested. _The Sailor Scouts had taken to referring to the other Shadow cells that Tithon spoke of as Shadow remnants. It bolstered their confidence, made it sound like we were winning...but the girls never celebrated our victory over Tithon's group. We had only won the first of God-knows-how-many battles...and that's how Luna and Artemis wanted it. The Sailor Scouts couldn't afford to become complacent again._

I looked over to Mina, smiling as she worked, before turning my gaze back to Amy. "I wanted to ask if you still thought going after Alyssa was the right call. We don't know if she's one of the Shadows."

Amy frowned. "It looks to me like she was only pretending to be your friend so she could figure out if you were the one she was looking for. I hate saying it Logan, you deserve to be treated better than that, but it's sticking out a mile. And she's the only one who can lead us to the remnant cells."

"I left a message for my parents, telling them that flights were canceled and I was in good company," I admitted to Amy. "I got one message back: it said 'OK'. Two weeks in Japan, and that's all I heard from them.

"I'm sorry, Logan. You know we want nothing more than for you to stay with us." Amy pressed her facial muscles upwards: _smile first and think of a reason to later_. "Short-term, we could always look into enrolling you in a fall course at the University, or find you a job. Mina may be on to something trying to get you in show-business."

"Yeah...did I mention I graduated from college without passing a public speaking class?" I admitted.

Amy shook her head and smiled. "It wasn't my cup of tea either, then I met Serena. Let's get everyone together, and I'll share what I found."

"Phew! Break time!" Mina called out.

"Hey!" Lita called back to us, wiping a bead of sweat off her forehead, when she noticed Amy and I were standing by the small yellow circular table in the middle of the spacious cavern...though it was looking less and less like a cavern. "Can you believe how much we got done today? A few more touches and this will look like a real command center!"

"It suited me just fine," I grunted under my breath...it wasn't enough for the others to hear, but Lita was giving me her 'I put my foot in my mouth again' frown when I lifted my eyes.

"Oh, you don't like it..." she murmured.

"No!" I responded defensively. "It's just...different..."

I expected Raye would flare up, as she had a tendency to, but she remained solemn. _We had gotten off on the wrong foot when I met the Sailor Scouts, and she was trying to start fresh._ "I know the remodel was a lot to ask. It's just way too dangerous for us to keep meeting at the Temple."

"I know Raye, I just have to get used to it," I said apologetically.

I felt Mina drape her arm over my shoulder and point me towards one of the smaller caverns. I couldn't help smiling at the banner that read 'Happy Birthday Logan' hanging over the doorway. "See! We kept your birthday decorations as a little thank-you to the one who was so generous about sharing with us!" Hotaru giggled when Mina planted the light kiss on my cheek that made the remodel TOTALLY worth it.

Lita perked back up. "It's gonna look a whole lot better when we're through, you'll see! I was thinking we could get a big comfy couch down here, maybe a karaoke stage for Mina and - OOOH! A kitchen! Throw in a few candy dispensers to keep Serena and Rini amused, and we'll be in business!"

"Speaking of those two, they should be back with Darien any minute now," suggested Amy. "We need to have a group meeting when they get back."

"Hey, have any of you heard back from Trista?" Hotaru asked. All of the other women shook their heads.

Amy flipped her communicator and opened it as if she were considering giving Trista a ring, but clamped it shut again. "Trista asked us to contact her in the event of an emergency only. Let's hold off until we know exactly what we're facing here."

"RINI!"Serena's voice announced the bun-headed duos return to the hidden base...as if the sound of them crashing and colliding into the newly-covered walls didn't make it clear enough. "LET! GO! OF! MY...CHAIR!"

"No! YOU let go of MY chair! Pink is MY color, Serena!" The rabbit-haired Princess yelled back right before the pair tumbled into view, fingers tightly clenched over opposite ends of a plastic, folded pink chair _._

"PLEASE! WATCH THE WALLS!" Lita pleaded. Serena and Rini settled on tugging over the chair in the middle of the cave, showing no hint of awkwardness over the six of us staring.

Darien followed behind them carrying the promised stack of multi-colored chairs, enough for all of us to sit. He set the chairs down beside the yellow table and crossed his arms, standing behind Serena like a disappointed parent. "This isn't what Luna meant when she said you two should take charge more often!"

Serena continued growling at Rini and refused to loosen her grasp on the chair's legs. "This chair isn't pink, it's magenta! And it wasn't my first choice! Red is Raye's color, the only other match was purple but Hotaru's here, so that's her chair! Amy has blue, Darien's is white because we're giving Logan the black one, so we have to save the silver one for Trista - "

"Then it's your fault for not getting the yellow one, dimwit!" Rini snapped back.

"Are you colorblind?! Yellow isn't my color, my hair is a radiant shade of golden blonde!" _Serena just wouldn't relent._

"Rini..."

Serena's 12-year-old future daughter puller her eyes off her future mother when I called her name. Rini's eyes widened slightly and her cheeks turned slightly pink. _It was still there...at least it wasn't as obvious as before..._

"Oh, hi Logan." Rini answered sweetly, with no trace of frustration in her voice. "I didn't see you there..."

"YOINK!" Serena took advantage of Rini's distraction and gleefully raised the pink chair over her head like it was a trophy. "Find your own, squirt!"

Darien cut Serena's moment of triumph short by snatching the chair from HER hands, unfolding it open, and setting the chair down in front of the undersized circular table. Serena and Rini both gave him blank stares with guilt-ridden eyes and perfectly straight eyebrows.

"Thank you." Amy cleared her throat. "I wanted to call a group meeting while most of us are here. I signaled Luna, Artemis, and Diana to return here, but we can get started in the meantime."

"YIPPEE! First group meeting in our new HQ!" Serena clasped her hands together in delight. "Everyone gets their assigned seats today!"

"YAY!" cheered Rini, swinging the purple chair towards Hotaru.

"Did you really need to go through all this trouble to get us matching seats?" Darien asked after he unfolded the white one he had been promisedand sat at the table next to Hotaru. _I was struck by how woefully small compared to the number of seats surrounding it, yet everyone else was squishing around it._ "Can't we just sit wherever?"

"Nu-uh!" Serena calmly but promptly declined Darien's request. "Luna said I should get a head start on my regal bearing and what-not. Rini and I are your future leaders, that means we have a system!"

As if she'd forgotten their earlier feud, Rini promptly shut her eyes and solemnly nodded in agreement. _Just like I'd seen from Mina_.

"I'm sure this isn't what Luna had in mind," Darien groaned.

"Now, we were able to keep most of you with your assigned color." Serena announced while she and Rini divided the stack of chairs to fold out. "Lita gets green, Mina sits in the orange one..."

"Raye has red, blue for Amy, and you get the black one, Logan!" She seemed extra excited to her stack included my chair. I caught Darien mutter 'this is ridiculous' under his breath but everyone else complied and squeezed in around the yellow table, leaving me standing there holding my own.

"Now, all that's left is the pink one..." Serena muttered.

"I'm sure you can come to a mature, reasonable way to settle this," Amy refrained from her seat, but Serena and Rini were already casting each other looks daring the other to reach out and grab it. Sure enough, both of them launched into a mad sprint for the pink chair at the same time. Rini planted her bosom on it first, knocking Serena's face away with an open palm.

"WOO-HOO!" Rini wasted no time gloating with her eyes closed and arms raised in victory. "The pretty Sailor Scout of love and justice gets her rightful seat!"

"That's fine..." Serena held her composure remarkably well, but it was all to taunt Rini with a waltz to Darien's seat. "I'll just sit with my honey bunch!" She sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around him, earning the stare of death from Rini.

"Maybe we should spread out a little?" I suggested. I was standing in place and holding my chair. _Seven Sailor Scouts and one fully grown man already sitting around a comically small round yellow table, like we were in Kindergarten again. This was going to make me claustrophobic..._  
 _  
_"If you're worried about the lack of space, cutie...you can always sit with me!" Mina eagerly clapped her hands on her lap from her chair, but Raye elbowed her bicep when she was done. "OWWW! How come you don't complain when it's Serena and Darien?!"  
 _  
_"Because Mina..." Serena folded her hands across the table. _She was working on her regal appearance_. "This is our round table - "

"Raye said we could take the square one down first," Darien interrupted. "That one's actually big enough for all of us."

Serena cleared her throat. "Honey bunch, I said 'no' because this is our ROUND table. We got THIS one with Logan in mind."

"So this is my fault," I grumbled.

Rini swiveled in her chair to face me. "We're equals sitting here, Sir Charon the Turtle."

I couldn't resist rolling my eyes at her. "Well then, may I address you as Pottymouth Princess Rini whenever you call me that?"

"I'm not a pottymouth!" Rini pouted, even if she knew I was teasing. "It's a certain twenty-first century meatball head who calls ME names all the time!"

While Serena launched into mumbling insults in Rini's direction like 'troll' and 'fungus', I conceded and planted my chair behind Mina and Lita. _There wasn't enough room for me to squeeze in, even if I wanted to make Mina jealous._

Amy sighed. "Now we can FINALLY get started. Logan's computer was heavily damaged by the Spymaster's attack. We still don't have speech or other higher functions - " Amy paused when Raye exhaled a sigh of relief "...but I connected into his short-range sensor net and found a peculiar signal. Someone else conducted a highly focused worldwide scan"

"Do we know who they are or what they were looking for?" Lita asked.

Amy shook her head. "Their energy pulse was too fast for me to get an EXACT location on where it originated, just that it came from somewhere in the city. The Mugen School zone is one area of interest."

 _The Mugen School. Mina had started filling me in more on the Sailor Scouts' past before I joined them...about Pharoah 90 and Mistress Nine...and Sailor Saturn._ Hotaru's eyes had dropped to the table when I looked over to her.

"Anything wrong?" I asked. The others' eyes followed suit.

I saw Hotaru's lips beginning to form the word 'no', but they froze in place. Her eyes darted around, reconsidering her words, then she nodded instead. "My dad was a teacher there. It's like...I knew him from another life." _I knew how that felt._

"Hotaru was only a baby when Trista brought her back to us," Rini explained to me. "No one wanted to build anything where the Mugen School was until a few months ago. People said it was cursed."

"I didn't sense any evil spirits before," Raye joined in, "but a bad aura remains over that place. The Shadows must be involved somehow."

"I was hoping they would give us more than a few days off," sighed Serena.

"You heard Tithon. We only took the head off the snake," Lita made a fist with her right hand and pounded her open left palm, accidentally elbowing Lita as she did. _Serena's eyes drooped after Lita's bravado...the Spymaster's death at her hands still affected her deeply._ "But we're not letting them catch us off-guard again!"

"We still don't have a lot to go on here," I reminded Lita, before looking across to Amy. "Is there anything at the Mugen School zone the Shadows might take an interest in?"

"Only a smoking crater was left," Amy answered. "We did have one incident with a remaining Daimon Pod, but we took care of it and made sure that wouldn't happen again."

"Maybe there are Shadows who got scared and ran away from Grandpa," Rini suggested just after Amy shook her head 'no'. "Maybe they're looking for us so they can help, like Logan."

"I wouldn't hold my breath," Raye huffed.

"Where are the Guardian Cats? Luna and Artemis were the ones breathing down OUR necks to be more punctual!" complained Serena. Right then, one white and one black cat dashed through the cave entrance.

"Sorry Amy!" Luna panted. "You said it was urgent."

"Where is Diana? Wasn't she with you too?" Rini asked.

"She...said she had a surprise for Charon. It's better you see for yourself..." Artemis sighed.

Every pair of eyes at the table turned to me before another light patter of footsteps announced Diana's arrival. Luna and Artemis smacked their foreheads with their paws when the energetic gray kitten jumped up on Rini's lap to prop herself on the table. Diana wore a gray hood around her head that had been torn from a shirt, and the hood was decorated with a crudely-cut yellow crescent moon stitched to the right side.

"Diana...did you make that yourself?" I asked. I found it adorable, but a quick survey of faces around the room suggested I was the only one...

Raye convulsed like she was about to vomit. "Why are you dressed like a Shadow, Diana?!"

"Because Raye, the Spymaster is honor-bound to continue my training by request of future Sailor Pluto!" Diana cheerfully answered, oblivious to everyone else around her face-palming. "I wanted to look the part of future apprentice Shadow-Guardian of Time! Maybe one day, I'll have a kitty-sized bracer so I can have powers just like the Spymaster!"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" snapped Luna. "I FORBID IT!"

"Charon's not the Spymaster anymore, Diana," insisted Artemis. "He left the Shadows."

"He still holds the title, just like the Sailor Scouts were still Princesses when they were reborn on the twenty-first century," Diana reminded us. "Don't let that impostor Spymaster we beat fool you, daddy."

"Today's Shadows are just plain evil, Diana!" Raye snapped. "They tried to kill Logan, put my Grandpa in the hospital, nearly destroyed our Temple, AND they brainwashed several of our friends including Melvin and Greg! There's no way Neo-Queen Serenity would bring the Shadows back, right Serena? Not after the terrible things they've done!"

I looked to Serena in nervous anticipation of her answer myself. _Diana was right, I was still technically Spymaster. But if Serena abolished the position, what would I be then? What place would I have in Crystal Tokyo?_ Serena retained her calm composure as she spoke, even as her voice trembled...

"Queen Serenity...my mother...is the one who set the standard for them, Raye. The Shadows resent us because Queen Serenity denied their existence: she planned to get rid of them herself. We need to show them how wrong their ways are, that we can do a lot better. When I'm Queen, we won't treat anyone differently. Only trust and honesty from the start."

"Serena...I think that's a little unrealistic." I didn't want to draw everyone's attention towards me instead, but I felt I had to say something. "Trust has to be earned. Not every threat will make itself obvious, like Metalia and Pharoah Ninety."

"We'll protect Earth, as we always have," Hotaru answered diplomatically. "That is our mission as Sailor Scouts."

"But you shouldn't plan on being reactive to every single threat. Information saves lives," I said. "I can't keep tabs on the entire solar system and beyond by myself."

My heart sank when I saw everyone looking across from each other. _They hadn't planned on me being part of their team a thousand years from now, not the same way at least..._

"I thought you wanted to stay at the Palace with us, just like Grandma promised," Rini said. Her voice cracked slightly with surprise...and disappointment.

"I do," I admitted, "but...that doesn't mean I have to stay cooped up in the Palace, does it? You'll still be Sailor Scouts a thousand years from now, right?"

"But Logan, this is our destiny," Mina answered. "Your destiny was to help us, even if Luna and Artemis didn't foresee it. But you don't HAVE to keep doing this."

"Someone has to," I insisted. "You can't bury your head in the sand and hope everything will work out just because you want it to!"

"AAANNNDDD the fall of the first Moon Kingdom didn't mean the end of the Sailor Scouts!" _Diana wasn't going to let her first point go either._ "These vagrant rogues with yellow teeth and frizzy hair you're fighting are just phonies pretending to be one of us! The real Shadows can only be disbanded by an official writ bearing the royal seal, issued by the future King and Queen themselves!"

"I...remember learning that in class. She's right," admitted Rini. Everyone else stared wide-eyed at the usually naive kitten who made such a convincing argument.

"That means Charon is responsible for finishing my training!" concluded Diana. "And since he can't teach me to guard the Space-Time Door, he can teach me what he knows as a secret agent of her majesty!"

"Fine, Diana," Darien gave in. "Let's get you up to speed before we plan our next move."

I stood from my chair. _It was just way too stuffy for me...and I wanted some time to think._ "Sorry, it's a little cramped in here. Mind if I go out for a bit?"

"Sure. Go ahead," Serena answered mellowly. I could feel all their eyes staring at the back of my head while I sought the relief of the dark, wide cavern leading to the surface _..._

* * *

 _They knew they hadn't given me the answer I wanted to hear, and vice versa...for all my hopes, that's how most of our conversations on the future went. I just held out hope that one day, I'd know just the right thing to say and we could find that middle ground I so desperately sought..._

I lifted my sleeve, rubbed my hand against the cold silver bracer underneath that both empowered and restricted me. My finger traced the decorative pattern until it touched the cold, sharp dark shard in the middle...the source of my own powers as a Shadow. _Maybe we had defeated Tithon's Shadow cell in a few days, but it was only one cell. I hadn't thought about the day when we defeated them all would come soon...I thought they would always be out there, like a boogeyman in the dark. Would the Sailor Scouts would allow me to keep my powers and continue helping them after the Shadows had been defeated? Or would they ask me to give them up as an example to others, to ensure Serena's new kingdom would remain safe...as the Shadows predicted, albeit with more sinister motives?_ Not long after, the timid and gentle patter of Mina's footsteps followed behind me.

"Amy said I should look for 'clues' when you need personal space," Mina admitted, close enough for me to smell her perfume. "Or did she say 'cubes'? Anyway, I thought I saw the 'need to have a talk with my girlfriend' look."

"I wasn't aware I had one." Hoping to lighten the mood a little, I turned to smile at her. "I hope I'm not losing my edge already!"

"No! Just girlfriend's intuition!" she winked before her facial lines tightened. _There we were, back to business_. "Logan, I know talking doesn't come as easily to you as it does for the rest of us. Whenever Crystal Tokyo comes up, we keep agreeing to disagree."

"At least Serena doesn't automatically shoot me down when I bring it up, like Trista does," I sighed. _Even now, I couldn't resist taking a jab at her._ "I get why she doesn't want us talking about the future, just...it's my future too, and Serena didn't even ask me. It's like...she's just going to put me in a box in a Crystal Palace."

"Serena worries you're pushing yourself too hard because you still feel like you have something to prove to us," Mina admitted. She gently placed her hand where Tithon cut into my flank with his dark magic kusari-gama. "We'll find something for you, I promise. What matters right now is making sure you're there with us. That's why we need to find Alyssa and the remaining Shadows. As Sailor Scouts, our mission is to keep you safe...you, AND Serena's family."

"Before I met you, Alyssa was the closest I had to a friend since - " Mina made a sour face, so I cut myself off before I said Stephanie's name. "Alyssa was one of the few people who was nice to me."

"I'm ninety-nine-point-nine percent positive Alyssa was a Shadow, Logan," Mina said gently but firmly. "I want to believe that Serena can reach them somehow, but they're just so untrustworthy. They'll even pretend to be your friend if it gets them what they want. That's why they tried to pull you away from us even while they were trying to kill you! If they would just give Serena a chance. If Serena can make everyone on Earth happy, the way she makes all of her friends happy...isn't that all that matters?"

"How she does it is just as important, Mina," I reminded her, as much as I didn't want an argument. "This is about more than just me. Not every Shadow is like Tithon: they don't know Serena like you and I do, but you're expecting them to put a lot of faith in one person. I can't blame them for questioning if she can bear the weight, though I wouldn't want to be in Serena's position either."

"Oh," Mina smirked, "Mister future President of the USA doubting he can handle the responsibility?"

"That was in my DREAM world!" I laughed. "Speaking of the US...you keep using 'the airports are closed' as an excuse, but couldn't you have just dropped me off with Sailor Teleport?"

Mina playfully tilted her head in mock thought, but smugly pulled me towards her. "I suppose we could have...OK, guilty as charged! The thought crossed my mind, but why would I say it out loud?"

"I'm not sure if that would be an inappropriate use of Scout power." Artemis' scratchy voice interrupted. "Maybe I'll ask Luna."

"OH! SHOO, ARTEMIS!" Mina screeched, grasping my forearms with admirable strength.

"Hate to interrupt, but we need you back," apologized Artemis. "We can't rule out the possibility that whoever's out there knows we're coming."

"Aaaaannnndddd...another raincheck," Mina complained. She reluctantly led me back inside to face the others. All of them were still clumped together, dropping their eyes at the sight of me.

"Luna said we should be discrete until we know what we're up against," Serena addressed me. _Her voice was shaking a bit: maybe she was nervous after the way our first talk ended._ "You were our first pick to lead the search...if you want to, that is."

"Me? You're sure?" I was a little surprised that Serena wanted me to lead the group, but she smiled gently and nodded. _She was making a gesture of trust._

Mina swung her arm around my shoulder, though it required her to stand on her tiptoes. "Of course, you're not going in alone! I'll be right by your side the whole time!"

"Me too!" Lita jumped from the table so she could make a fist and punch her open palm without elbowing anyone. "Just in case you need another door kicked in!"

"What about you, Amy?" I asked my blue-haired friend, playing with a pair of eyeglasses. "Are you going to stay with the computer?"

Amy smiled, shook her head side-to-side, and took the opportunity to get away from the table. "I calibrated my own computer's sensor so that it can track Shadow energy signatures at short range, using the data from our previous battles. Maybe we'll be able to test it in the field."

 _It certainly sounded useful. Other Shadows wouldn't be able to get the drop on us now._

"I wish I could come," Raye began apologetically, "but I'd feel better knowing someone was watching the Temple. Grandpa's up and about, but he still hasn't fully recovered."

"I can keep an eye on him," Darien suggested to Raye. _Serena mentioned Darien also had some medical training. She sure made it sound like the King-in-training knew everything._ "If you run into Shadows, your powers would be more helpful than my roses."

Rini frowned when Raye's eyes fell to her. "I can stay too and help keep the Temple safe for you, Raye."

Hotaru stood up and walked around the table to nudge her gently. _She knew Rini felt bad about being left behind._ "I'll stay and keep you company, Rini! Trista may come back early, anyway."

"Artemis and I can start from the other side of Amy's search area and work our way towards the middle," proposed Luna. "She wasn't able to pinpoint an exact location, so we have a lot of ground to cover."

"We'll be more careful not to draw attention this time," assured Artemis.

"Diana, since I haven't had a chance to train you yet," I suggested to the eager kitty, "you can put your other training to use guarding Raye's temple with Rini, Hotaru and Darien." Diana gleefully nodded.

"It's settled then!" Serena exclaimed. "Let's book it!"

"Hold on!" Rini called out just when Serena leaped up to join the rest of us. "Maybe you should sit this one out, too!"

"You just don't want me hanging out with Logan instead of you!" Serena defiantly crossed her arms.

"Nuh-uh!" Rini stared straight down at the floor - enough so I couldn't see her cheeks - and shook her head. "You're way too noisy to be on a STEALTH mission! Half the country will know you're coming!"

"Rini has a point!" snapped Raye. "We want to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible, and YOU nearly got us caught in Charon Castle, Sailor Not-So-Subtle!"

"Like I was the only one!" Serena stuck her tongue out at Raye.

Everyone else looked to me to render the verdict. _I felt bad about it, but it was an easy call._ After a deep breath, I answered: "...It'll be easier for me to work with a smaller group. The more of us, the harder it'll be to search unnoticed.

"GGGGRRRR! YOU TRAITOR!" Serena waved a fist in the air then stormed off to the back of the cave. "FINE! I won't say I told you so when you come running back here with your tails between your legs, begging Sailor Moon to bail you out!"

"You know she's just kidding, right?" Lita whispered to me.

"I know. At least she didn't call me 'turncoat'," I whispered back.

"I'm not looking forward to wearing a skirt in this weather, but we really should go as the Sailor Scouts," Mina proposed to the others. "I'm getting bad vibes..."  
 **  
To Be Continued**

* * *

 **A/N:** Back with a new chapter in under a week :) I hope it makes up for the wait on the last two! I'm really happy with how Stephanie's coming across, thanks for all the positive feedback! Still, I was excited about the idea of getting back into Logan's head...even if this story's taking the Sailor Scouts to murkier territory, it still felt like being reunited with old friends. I hope the feeling was mutual!

I ended this chapter earlier than I planned, since I expanded the reintroduction. If any of you are new readers, or past details are just a bit hazy, I didn't want to just throw you back in without any context. I didn't want this to be one of those sequels that'll leave you completely lost if you haven't been following from the start. That's all the silliness and fluff out of the way before their big action scene...or is it? ;)  
 **  
**For the Sailor Scouts' (formerly Charon's :P) command center, I looked to the live-action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series as a model for how it may look. The Temple served as the Sailor Scouts' meeting ground in the original anime, and it carried through with SoSM. Of course, with Tithon and the Shadows' repeated raids, along with the hint that it's been in a state of decline following the end of the anime, I felt it was time to give the original Scouts their own secret base.

Don't worry, this doesn't mean the end of Stephanie's POV - seeing things from the opposite side was a lot of fun for me, and I'm so happy that she and Alyssa are coming across as likable characters! I'm hoping for a more even split than I originally planned: Stephanie may hold the majority of the opening chapters as the newer character, but I think things will ultimately even out when the Starlights return, and we get into some of the Inner/Outer Scout subplots I have planned :) Thanks for reading, please let me know how I'm doing so far!


	5. Seeing Red

**Chapter 5: Seeing Red  
(AKA "Protect Logan! The Jealous Ninja Returns")**

 ** _Logan_  
**  
Sailor Mercury's coordinates took us through the icy heart of downtown Tokyo. Few traversed the streets after night fell, though I noticed a few bystanders staring up at the Sailor Scouts as we jumped from one snow-blanketed rooftop to the next. _Not a very subtle approach, but we agreed there was little point to being stealthy if those we were tracking left before we arrived_. While Sailor Mercury paused to double check the coordinates on her mini supercomputer, Sailors Jupiter and Venus huddled around Mars after she created a dwarf fireball above her palm to warm us.

"Mars, have I ever told you that you're my favorite person in the world?" Sailor Venus announced through her shivering, though she winced after Jupiter cast her an inquisitive eyes. "Well, besides Charon, of course. And Rini...and Serena, when she's not being a TOTAL ditz...and Artemis even when he's SUCH a party pooper - "

"Quit while you're ahead," Mars grumbled under her breath.

I pulled away from our group slightly to peek overhead. The skyscrapers in the distance were still illuminated, but our corner of the city was pitch black. "Venus mentioned you confronted Queen Beryl at D-Point, in the Arctic Circle. It had to be colder than this!"

"Yeah, but at least we had a volcano to look forward to while we were there!" Venus held her trembling hands closer to Mars' fireball.

"Oh, don't mind her!" Mars teased. "She's just getting fussy in her old age!"

"Charon's older than all of us! You calling my boyfriend a dinosaur, Mars?!" The blonde retorted.

"No, that's you putting words in my mouth again!" Mars snapped back, though her facial lines fell into a quizzical pattern soon after. She leaned over Venus to peek at the rooftop behind her.

"See something?" asked Sailor Jupiter.

"Thought I did...never mind." Mars shook her head. "The Shadows are making me paranoid. I always feel somebody's watching us."

"Maybe it's just one of your fans taking a peek," I nudged Mars...though that was unlikely at our height.

Sailor Jupiter smirked. "Or maybe Charon put one of them up to it as another one of his test."

Sailor Mercury swirled around with her mini supercomputer, before sighing in defeat and clasping it shut. "No luck narrowing down the search perimeter, guys. I'm still having difficulty syncing to Charon's sensor net. My own scanner isn't nearly as strong enough."

"I take it that's why you can't just scan the city for evil auras and what-not?" quizzed Jupiter.

Mercury shook her head. "Catching that high-energy scan was a stroke of luck. If we do encounter the Shadows again, hopefully I can calibrate my computer's scanner to track them so they can't get the drop on us. But at long-range, I can only trace their energy signatures when they're gathered in large numbers, or using their powers on a large scale."

"Neither of which is very likely," I admitted.

"I sure hope this trek down winter wonderland isn't a complete waste of time," Sailor Jupiter sighed.

"We still don't know for sure that the Shadows were behind the scan," I suggested. "You never know what we might find."

"Mmm-hmm." Sailor Venus nodded. "We can look in the streets while Charon shadows us from above - no pun intended."

"Let's hop to it, then!" Sailor Jupiter let the others in a drop down to the streets below. _We WERE standing on one of the smaller office buildings, but even with the snow to cushion their landing, a fall like that was bound to put anyone without powers_ _in a cast_.

In the next building, I noticed that someone had left the third floor office room's window open. _No sense staying out in the cold out of pride._ I dashed towards the window pane with a running leap, opened it with one hand as I dangled with the other, then rolled inside on my back as quietly as I could. _Completely deserted...just as I hoped._

The subdued blue light on my communicator blinked and dimmed. _Amy had installed a useful stealth setting, so the bleeping wouldn't give us away in case we were sneaking._ Mercury's voice greeted me: "Charon, I picked up a faint reading down here."

I pressed my back against the corner when I heard something - or someone - collide with a pipe along the side of the building.

"Hold on. I've got a disturbance up here," I whispered into my communicator before snapping its face closed. The same pipe continued rattling, accompanied by the sound of the mystery climber speaking... _to herself._ I caught a long-enough glimpse out the window to note the woman clad in a tight-fitting red costume - sticking out like a sore thumb against the white snow - with black sleeves. My mind briefly flickered to the question of who might be crazy to pull a stunt like this, before my eyes were drawn to a familiar pair of blonde pigtails flowing out of the bun-shaped holes in her red hood...

"I am a spider, I can climb..."Serena's voice became more audible the higher she clambered upwards. _She was putting zero effort into keeping her volume down_. _I couldn't believe she followed us...I didn't think she'd be able to keep up. Well, relatively._ "I am a spider, I can climb...I am a spider...I can...no. I am an eagle, I can SOAR!"

My heart skipped a beat when she haplessly lurched towards the window sill with a thud. I almost opened the window to grab her so she wouldn't fall, but the entire wall vibrated when her fingers caught the edge. Her feet clawed against the outside to prop herself up. She loudly clawed the window open, threw herself into the room and crashed onto the floor.

"Logan, what's all that noise?!" Mercury's worried voice whispered through the speaker. "We're coming up!"  
 _  
_"No, it's OK! False alarm," I whispered back into the wristwatch.

Serena panted no more than five feet away from me, loudly enough to cover any trace of my voice reaching her ears. _..not that situational awareness was ever her strong suit_. A convincing white sword hilt with red diamonds protruded from the black sheathe hanging on Serena's back. Serena slowed her loud gasping, crossed her legs and sat in the lotus position. _She was completely oblivious to my presence._

"The Red Ninja is focused and still. She mediates to steady her breathing. OOOOMMMM!" She intoned in a loud voice that made me want to slap myself. "AAAHHHMMM. Now, to seek out the ideal vantage point to spy on the slippery snakes in the grass..."

 _Wow, she was holding a grudge for excluding her. I had to admire the effort Serena was putting into this, but she had a LONG way to go. Plus she was talking about herself in third person, which was never a good sign..._ STILL failing to notice me, Serena went flat to the ground on all fours and meticulously - unnecessarily - crawled to an adjacent window on the side of the building to snoop on the others below.

"There they are!" Serena uttered - rather loudly - to herself. "Hmm, I don't see Charon down there, but no one escapes the Ninja! I have the eyes of a hawk, the ears of a bat, and feet swift as a tiger!"

 _All while I was standing directly behind her._ I leaned in close enough to whisper in her ear: "has the Red Ninja contemplated whether narrating out loud is counterproductive to stealth?"  
 _  
_"YYYYOOOOWWWW!" Serena flipped around and yelped upon realizing I was behind her. She thrust the window open and leaned dangerously outside. "Ninja Escape!"

"Serena, don't jump - " Of course, Serena flipped out the window into a nosedive, at the risk of plummeting several stories into the snow below. I teleported directly behind her, grabbed her waist, and landed into a pile of snow right across from the street from the Inner Scouts. They raced over to stare as I pushed Serena off me.

"Of course...we had to land on my back..." I groaned, rolling out of the snow pile feeling like I just popped a disc. _Whatever magic the Sailor Scouts had allowed them to land painlessly...I did not share._

"Not again!" Sailor Mars groaned. "Quit stalking me, Little Red Maniac Hood!"

"You mean, she's dressed up like this before?" My question was answered with solemn nods from both Mercury and Venus.

Serena jumped to her feet and brushed the remaining snow off her now damp red outfit. "This is no mere costume to be exchanged on a whim! I am the Red Ninja of Love, and I've come for YOU, my double-crossing friend! Not Raye, even as she remains mum on what intimate secrets Darien may have confided in him on the ride home!"

"How many times do I have to tell you WE'RE OVER?!" fumed Mars.

"So...the Red Ninja of Love has come to protect MY boyfriend, huh?!" Even the Red Ninja herself flinched at the sight of Sailor Venus' hands planted firmly on her hips, accompanied by the twitching right eyebrow of doom. "From HIS OWN GIRLFRIEND, maybe?!"

Serena manically waved her arms to ward off the self-proclaimed Goddess of Love. "Oh, no! No, NO NO NO NO! Logan and I have a strictly plutonic relationship!"

"PLATONIC, Serena," Mercury corrected her. "Serena and Logan are strictly friends, Venus. Neither of them are the wandering-eye type!"

Without another word, Venus' eyes relentlessly cross-examined the two single members of the group. _The others had warned me that Mina fell on the jealous side before. She'd taken Rini's crush inside...well, besides her less-than-subtle way of outing it, but Mina almost seemed delighted about it. The hint of anyone older eyeing me though turned Mina into a pitbull._

"I was just worrying about Logan, K?" Serena admitted. "You know how accident-prone he can be, he's hurting himself every fifteen minutes!"

"Right. Because if you hadn't been here, I totally would have jumped off an office building just for kicks," I grumbled sarcastically.

Serena's eyes glazed over, deep in thought: "I should have realized...that all the ninja training in the world could not account for the near-psychic link that was forged a thousand years ago between Princess Serenity and Charon. He must have sensed I was coming..."

"Uh...no, Serena," I answered with crossed arms. "You're just REALLY bad when it comes to being quiet."

"Still, you know you're a prime Shadow target, even if the Spymaster said they wanted you alive," Sailor Jupiter reminded her. "Did you tell the others you were trailing us."

"I slipped Darien a quick note," Serena admitted. "Then I slipped past Diana while she was rehearsing her latest schtick: 'those who desecrate this holy place face immediate liquidation'."

Every other girl collectively facepalmed. _Serena - of all people - slipping past her did not bode well for her future training._

"That kitten needs to get her mind on the other half of her job." Sailor Jupiter mirrored my thoughts.

"We should let the others know you're with us anyway, in case Darien didn't get the memo." Sailor Mercury dialed into her wrist watch and called for Rini or Hotaru to pick up.

"Anyway, here's the reading Amy's computer picked up." Sailor Mars dusted the snow off half a dented, gray metal case discarded in the snow. A black star symbol was carved into the center.  
 **  
**"This looks familiar!" Serena exclaimed. "The Bureau of Bad Behavior carried monsters around with these!"  
 **  
**"Precisely!" Sailor Mercury continued fiddling with the blue light on the side of her communicator as she spoke to us. "I'm only getting static now. I don't think either of them heard me."

"You remember who jammed our communicators last time?" Sailor Jupiter flipped her brunette ponytail about and made a fist. "Tithon's cell wasn't what I'd call technologically-inclined, and they were STILL able to jam our signals!"

"This part of the city's deserted," said Sailor Mercury. "They could be jamming this whole block, for all we know."  
 _  
I felt my heart sinking...almost as if I had wanted to believe that this wasn't the Shadows' work. Maybe I hoped that the other cells would be different, that they would disappear from the public eye and leave us alone. But the Sailor Scouts wouldn't rest until they had been completely defeated...and I couldn't let them hurt my friends. Even if I didn't always agree with the Sailor Scouts...I still believed they would bring a better future. Still...I was a Shadow once. I was guilty of many of the deeds the Sailor Scouts railed against them for, even if my friends sometimes forgot that. I wasn't convinced ALL the Shadows were as bad as the Sailor Scouts made them out to be...hopefully my friends wouldn't forget that, either.  
_  
Sailor Mercury had taken to scanning the abandoned attache case with her mini computer. "There are only trace residues of genetic materials left here, far from enough to create a viable monster. They would need hundreds, and there were only a few cases unaccounted for. We made sure we'd never have a repeat of the last Daimon pod incident."

"DUCK!" Sailor Mars must have caught the same bad feeling I did at that very moment, right before we heard the low hum of thrumming dark energy streaking towards us, growing into buzzing as it came closer. I caught a split-second glance of the shuriken-like projectile, pulsating large dark magic blades held by a silver orb, as it streaked over Venus and Jupiter's heads. As if the star had a mind of its own, it adjusted course after missing its targets and flew towards the Red Ninja preemptively lying flat in the snow. I dashed over to drag her out of the windmill shuriken's way just in time.  
 **  
**"Thanks," sighed Serena. The shuriken flew just over our heads, spinning off drops of water and spiraling back towards the rooftops. _Likely towards its owner._

"Let's try not to make these last-minute saves a habit," I mumbled to her.

Sailor Jupiter reached over to pull us back to our feet. "You're about six years late for that, pal."

"Over there!" Sailor Venus pointed back in the direction that the dark magic shuriken came from. A hooded figure watched us from the rooftops, face shrouded in darkness, save a few rogue strands of hair fluttering in the wind. Their dark blue robes and leather vest blended with the night sky, defying the moonlight's best effort to illuminate them. The figure coiled their fingers around the small silver orb and retracting the dark magical blades extending from it. _There was no mistake now..._

"Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter - love, justice, beauty, yadi-yadi-yada-yada. There, I saved you a half hour of introductions." _A woman's voice._ The Shadow flicked her hand about dismissively while the Inner Scouts stood in a defensive wall ahead of me and Serena. "Hmmm...green one's not as tall as I was expecting."

"From where you're standing! Why don't you come a little closer?" Sailor Jupiter threatened. Sailor Mercury was one step ahead, pulling her blue visor over her eyes attempting to scan our latest opponent.

"You sure talk a lot of smack, but you dropped something, klutzenheimer!" Sailor Mars snarled.

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" the Shadow snapped back. _Familiar magic continued to alter her pitch and render her voice unrecognizable...but I knew she was familiar despite wearing the robes of a different cell..._

"Don't play stupid! We caught others wearing robes like yours, skulking around Charon Castle!" Jupiter snapped back. The woman balled her fist in response to Sailor Jupiter's taunt.

"First you swipe artifacts from under your own Spymaster's nose, then we catch you digging around Mugen School for scraps!" Sailor Venus joined in the group taunt. "Getting desperate?"

"If only she were closer," Sailor Mercury whispered, though she continued typing away on her computer. "She's outside my optimal scanning range."

"Charon...nice color scheme." _I did recognize the Shadow's voice. And where I heard it last...my dream world. I met her at the Police Academy, just before I met the Sailor Scouts. Now she was here..._ "You hardly blend into anything now, but at least your robes look like something a bourgeois lackey would wear."

I wanted to leave enough room for doubt...but now there wasn't any. She was a Shadow.

I mumbled her name in solemn denial to Sailor Mercury: "Alyssa..."

"WHAT?!" Sailor Mercury's fingers froze above her keypad. "That's her?!"

Sailor Venus had also swung her head to glance at me after I said her name. "Alyssa," Venus repeated, before returning to snarling at the unmasked Shadow. "Thanks for saving us the trouble of coming to America to find you!"

"I should have delivered you to Tithon myself, Charon." Alyssa's voice was more subdued this time."I should have told you about your past, who you were to us, but Tithon wanted to do that himself. I thought I'd at least opened your eyes, that you wouldn't want anything to do with the Sailor Scouts when you saw what they really were."

"The Sailor Scouts didn't attack a restaurant full of innocent people to get to him!" Although Serena was still clad in her red ninja outfit, she brushed forward to answer Alyssa's charge. "Sailor Moon stopped your recruiter from dragging him away, then came to his rescue when the recruiter tried KILLING him!"

"How humble, Serena," Mars shook her head before turning her attention back to Alyssa. "But she's right! Your people started this!"

Alyssa's gaze was fixed on Serena... _obviously a sore thumb standing among us..._ "Patience wasn't a virtue in Tithon's cell, but I have a hard time believing the rest. The Spymaster's recruiter didn't go around killing everyone who got in his way. He's the one who recruited me to the Shadows: he threatened to disembowel me all sorts of ways if I didn't pass his test. But he was just bluffing: if prospects knew we'd just wipe their memories and let them on their way if they failed, they wouldn't try so hard. I thought you were better at reading people Charon: of course, he would change his tune if you showed up with the Sailor Stooges as your entourage!"

"You could just be honest about who you are!" Sailor Venus shouted. "Of course, who'd want to join knowing you're going to cram dark shards into their skin and teach them torture magic? Or just take over their minds if they don't agree!"

"Oh? I've heard about your vaunted Silver Crystal and its 'healing' powers! Sure that isn't the same thing?" I noticed Serena flinch in response to Alyssa's jab. "You delivered what I expected...Monday morning quarterbacking from the exclusive, self-serving personality cult festering around Sailor Moon! Has the pampered Princess decided she has enough minions to do her fighting for her?"

"She doesn't know who you are," I whispered to Serena.

"You really think we're stupid, don't you?" sneered Jupiter. Alyssa nonchalantly nodded. "We're not falling into whatever trap you plan on leading us into!"

Alyssa flicked her comments off with one hand while keeping the other suspiciously behind her. _She had kept that hand behind her back for as long as we were talking._ "Would have been ideal if you moved six meters forward, but I'll manage." Alyssa finally unveiled the hand that she held behind her and unmasked a glowing black-purple orb of pure dark energy...

"Tell me I'm the only one who hears that sucking noise..." Sailor Venus mumbled when the ground started to shake as if we were in the midst of an earthquake. The others started running, but a crevice opened under us right when Alyssa closed her hand over the dissipating globe. I caught a glimpse of the swirling black holes that had stolen the ground from under us, shrinking out of existence right before we face-planted into the cold sewers below.

* * *

A pair of gloved hands yanked me to my feet as soon as I made landfall. There was no mistaking Alyssa's cold purple eyes glowing under the hood this time.

"They had orders to stay out of your way!" _Alyssa wasn't the same confident figure who mocked the Scouts to their face._ _She wasn't just a member of the same cell...she was the leader. She felt personally responsible for them._ "This is personal now..."

"Would you have assumed they meant us in no harm in our position?" Up close, I noticed the faded crescent moons, reminders of the Shadows' allegiance, viciously cleaved off her uniform. Alyssa tightened her grasp around my collar after I asked her that question. "Every one of Tithon's Shadows wanted me dead and the Sailor Scouts in chains."

Alyssa scoffed at the reference to the Sailor Scouts being chained. _She wouldn't have much sympathy for them even if she knew Tithon's Shadows meant that literally._ "I know one Shadow who doesn't want you dead. I thought you might not have the heart to do the same to her, but now I'm not so sure..."

"Who are you talking about?" I asked. My first thought drifted to another admirer of the Charon the Shadows idolized... _but the way she said it unnerved me..._

"NINJA WHIRLWIND!" Over Alyssa's shoulder, I watched the Red Ninja of Love leap upwards and toss a flurry of ninja stars that were nestled between her fingers. Alyssa blankly watched the gray stars harmlessly bounce of her robes and flutter to the ground. _They were just made of plastic._ Again, I wanted to slap myself.

"So...you're a typical Scout fangirl?" Alyssa, even briefly, sounded amused. "Or are you his nutter girlfriend?"

"The hell SHE'S his nutter girlfriend!" An irate Sailor Venus charged an unannounced Crescent Beam attack and fired it Alyssa's way. She teleported and reappeared behind Sailor Venus, but Sailor Jupiter lurched forward a quick elbow directed towards Alyssa's face.

"Mercury Bubble Blast!" Sailor Mercury blanketed us with an intense fog while Venus and Jupiter engaged the Shadow up close. _We were down too far for Alyssa to use the standard Shadow teleport to the surface, but she could still climb out if she got us distracted._

"There! Now quit playing around, ninja nerd!" Sailor Mars hissed from behind me and Serena. "Hurry up and transform already!"

"Oh, NOW you wish Sailor Moon had tagged along, huh?" The Red Ninja stopped to gloat. "Now that your little sneak attack has fallen through!"

"PLEASE, Serena?" I clasped my hands together and mimicked Mina's puppy dog face, with those wide doe eyes and trembling lips. Serena flicked her eyes to one side, then grudgingly took her compact in hand.

"Fine! But I haven't forgotten you wanted to leave me out too! Super...Moon Crisis...POWER!" Sailor Moon's compact opened, exposed the flashing crystal inside, and covered her in the translucent ribbons that would create her uniform.

With Mercury's fog screen dissipating, I saw Venus throw a high kick Alyssa's way, only for Alyssa to grab her leg and throw her backwards into the brick wall of the sewers. Sailor Mars was sent flying backwards with a dark magic strike, then Alyssa swept a brick lying on the ground and haphazardly threw it at Sailor Mercury to interrupt her attempt to strike. _There were some differences, but I recognized Tithon's fighting moves as part of her repertoire...he HAD trained her too._ With the Sailor Scouts' focus temporarily broken, Alyssa shifted her wrath to me. She unveiled the windmill shuriken she had thrown at the group earlier, except this time its energy was concentrated in a singular curved blade the size of a kukri. I ducked under her first strike, but Alyssa slammed her elbow against my forearm just when I was about to counterattack and staggered me. Alyssa started whaling at me with her available fist, recognizing that I was more concerned about her armed hand.

"Sailor Kick!" I grabbed Alyssa's available wrist so she wouldn't try to evade Sailor Moon's attack and twisted her around so that Serena's boot heel would dig into her back. Alyssa flipped around and twisted my wrist until I let go, then she rolled over my back to distance herself.

"Ah, there you are!" Alyssa chuckled. "With all your servants these days, I figured you were sitting this one out!"

Sailor Moon posed with her arms crossed. "Some might think I'm lazy, but I'll always rise when injustice comes knocking! I'm Sailor Moon - "

"Yeah, yeah, I read you like naps too!" Alyssa flipped backwards, extended her arm Sailor Moon's way, and fired a small arrow-like dark magic projectile towards her. Sailor Moon hunched to leap out of its way, but instead of continuing flight, the arrow burst into a dark blue cloud and covered her face. _A sleeping gas arrow, like the one Alyssa's Shadows had used against me in Charon Castle._

"Mmmmm..." Sailor Moon's eyes drooped and she wore a goofy grin. "I sure do love my nappy-time..."

"Stay up!" I shook Sailor Moon to keep her awake. Alyssa threw a pellet-shaped dark blue magic orb the Sailor Guardians' way when they tried to block her from moving around in the crumbling passage. Venus and Mars instinctively covered their mouths with one hand, but instead of bursting into a cloud of magically-charged smoke, smaller wisps of smoke flew into the sky and detonated in several different directions. We were left dazzled and disoriented by rapidly-timed flashes and hissing electric cackling noise, as if she had thrown a dozen flashbang grenades our way that detonated at the same time. Alyssa had vanished by the time we recovered from our daze.

"Did anyone see where she went?!" asked Sailor Mars frantically, her long raven hair flying about as she tossed her head about.

"She must have climbed back up to the surface!" Sailor Jupiter pointed up to the massive collapse overhead.

"No wait, I locked on to her energy signature!" Sailor Mercury briefly celebrated. She tilted her head to the brick wall on our right. _There was a small grate in the floor, just barely wide enough for one of us to slip through._ "She's holding inside the sewers."

"This'll flush her out!" Sailor Jupiter's concealed lightning rod rose from her tiara and collected electricity from the dark sky far up above. "Supreme Thunder Crash!"

I saw a flickering white strobe light on Mercury's computer screen. "You got her moving again! I don't think she knows her way around, she's staying close to our side!"

"She's trying to wait us out, leave the way she came in," observed Sailor Venus. "You and Charon should go in after her, the rest of us can stay here until we know her next move."

"Charon's the boss, remember?" Jupiter teased, but I knew Venus meant well. _She was also trying to step up more as a leader, after what happened in Charon Castle._

"Hold on!" Mercury extended an arm in front of me before I slid through the grate myself. "No energy fluctuations...I wanted to make sure she didn't leave a trap for us." As quietly as I could, I popped the grate open just enough for Sailor Mercury to slip through before following in behind her. The water that once flowed through the nearly pitch-black sewer was almost frozen.

Mercury tapped my shoulder and whispered. "NOW she laid a trap for us. Let's go this way."

When I rounded the corner Sailor Mercury in the path Mercury had nudged me, a familiar fist landed in my stomach. Alyssa rolled me on my back, right under her leg to choke me out.

"Shine Aqua Illusion!" Sailor Mercury had stayed back, maybe enough so Alyssa would think I was alone. A well-aimed gulf of freezing water struck Alyssa, distracting her long enough that I could wrap both my legs around my captor and twist her to the ground. Alyssa tried pushing me into the swirling time warp she created, but I pressed my knee firmly against her shoulder to pin her down.

"What are you really up to, Alyssa?" I asked in Sailor Mercury's presence. "Tomoe's lab was destroyed years ago. You knew you wouldn't be able to scrape together enough to create monsters of your own."

"I'm here for the same reason you once were. If the Sailor Scouts get their way, you'll wind up with the very world you fought Queen Beryl to prevent." Alyssa lurched forward and shoved my back into the wall, then made a mad dash back out the way we came.

"She's headed right for you!" Sailor Mercury called into her communicator, then grabbed my arm and pulled me after her. The other Sailor Scouts were waiting for Alyssa at the exit.

"Mars Fire Blast!" Sailor Mars sent a stream of fire, cutting off Alyssa's route of escape. _Now Alyssa was cornered between me and Sailor Mercury on one side, Sailor Moon and the remaining Inner Scouts on the other._

"You found a way to track my energy signature, didn't you Merc?" Alyssa snorted. "Now I'm impressed. 'Smartest of the Sailor Scouts' isn't much of an endorsement."

"The other Shadows didn't leave us any choice but to fight them," Sailor Mercury answered back. "But you have one. Surrender, and we'll let you go."  
 **  
**"Don't try that namby-pamby load of crap on me! Of course you had a choice!" Alyssa rocketed towards the Sailor Scouts, propelled by dark magic, but I blasted Alyssa away with my own dark magic strike and sent her flying backwards.

"Moon Tiara Magic!" Sailor Moon threw her frisbee-shaped ball of light Alyssa's way. Alyssa threw her windmill shuriken out at the same time and intercepted Serena's tiara. Both weapons flew back to their owners.

"You'll need something more powerful to end this," advised Mars while Mercury unleashed an Ice Storm Blast towards Alyssa in the crowded space.

"Mini Moon and Pegasus aren't here to power up my wand," lamented Sailor Moon. _She rarely showed it, but she did miss the little squirt when she wasn't here._

"Do you still have Queen Serenity's scepter?" Mars asked. Shrinking at the reminder of her Silver Millennium mother, Sailor Moon nonetheless stepped forward and nodded.

Alyssa rescinded her efforts to bypass the Sailor Scouts and retreated back into the sewers. I pleaded to her one last time: "they're offering to let you live, Alyssa! Please take it!"

"You can't beat all six of us!" Sailor Jupiter warned her.

"If Charon had worried about his odds against Queen Serenity, we wouldn't have a planet to fight over!" Alyssa quipped back, exposing the direction she was hiding.

"It's a dead end," Sailor Mercury whispered. "She's cornered."

"Don't you dare compare yourself to him! Venus Love and Beauty Shock!" Venus threw her spinning energy heart down one of the sewers. Alyssa rolled out of her hiding spot, and Sailor Mars quickly created a ring of fire around herself.

"Mars Celestial Fire Surround!" Sailor Mars threw eight hoops of fire down the sewer. Two of them flared past the coattails of Alyssa's robes, scorching them. _Alyssa was fast, but the Sailor Scouts were quicker on the draw than when I first started working with them. Together, against a single Shadow, they were able to keep her on her toes. Without knowing her way around Tokyo underground, her chances to escape were dwindling fast.  
_  
"I really don't want to do this, Alyssa," Sailor Moon pleaded one last time. She clutched the pink scepter with the red sphere encased within a gold crescent moon, gifted to her by her mother.  
 **  
**"The only reason you haven't yet...is you still think I'll cave and lead you to the other Shadows," Alyssa shot back.

"That's not how we think!" Sailor Moon insisted... _but I recognized our pleas were falling on stubborn ears._

"I'll NEVER grovel to you, Sailor Moon!" Alyssa remained defiant in the face of certain destruction. "And I'll never give up anyone who refuses to do the same!"

Sailor Moon grasped her scepter with both hands.  
 _  
_Alyssa reappeared above tried to pounce down on me from the ceiling, but I rolled out of her way and sundered her armor with a dark magic strike. An invisible magical barrier, meant to negate the Scouts' energy, rippled. _Now, she was vulnerable to their attacks._

"End it, Sailor Moon!" Venus called out.

"We tried, Logan. I'm sorry." My heart sank when the tiny crown topping Sailor Moon's scepter started flashing pink. Sailor Moon lifted her scepter towards the ceiling, pointed it towards Alyssa, then spun with it several times as it collected energy. "Moon...Princess...ELIMINATION!"

Sailor Moon struck Alyssa dead center with pink-spiral shaped energy, followed by a wave of white stars and crescent moons. I thought Alyssa was gone...but though she collapsed to the ground, she was left clutching her chest with one hand. Her leather vest had been scorched...but it took the brunt of Moon's attack.

"That...wasn't bad." Alyssa still tried brushing off Sailor Moon's effort as a failure, but her exertion betrayed her confidence. _She WAS hurt._

"Alyssa, stand down," I begged. "PLEASE."

Alyssa smirked my way. "You almost flipped the tables on me, but you're forgetting: this was MY trap."

Alyssa merely banged a single fist against the side of the wall, and the pavement above crumbled on top of us AGAIN. I glimpsed Sailor Mars pushing Moon out of the way just before I was crushed by falling debris all at once and everything went numb...

* * *

 _"Venus! Mars! Jupiter!"_ Serena's distant voice stirred me, even though it was only a whisper. _I was pinned down completely,_ with jagged rocks barring my every movement. There was hardly a drop of air, or a beam of light, offering hope of escape...only the sound of Serena trying to claw her way through drawing close. _"Mercury! Charon!"_

"Serena!" My voice strained to reach her, but I felt her weighing down slightly more on the rocks beside me. I crooned my neck just enough to see the jewel in Mercury's tiara. Trapped next to me, Amy's eyes were still shut. _At least having company made this feel less like my tomb._ "By the way, Serena...you can't count this towards my being 'accident-prone'."

I thought Serena chuckled a bit, but the voice that returned my comment was frantic. "Alyssa disappeared! I'm the only one out here!"I caught myself breathing a sigh of relief that Alyssa escaped. _Defending the Sailor Scouts from faceless Shadows hunting us down was one thing. Alyssa though...I just hoped she'd come around in time._

I tried squirming, but the pile on top was just too heavy to move. "Can you get through to Rini and Hotaru?"

Serena yelled through after a few seconds: "no! I'm still getting static! No luck with Luna or Artemis either!"

"They could be next Serena...go..."

"I won't just leave you here!" Serena insisted. She resumed clawing at the rocks above me but I could hear her straining to get through the heavier debris above.

Sailor Mercury began stirring beside me. _Maybe with her help, we could get out on our own._ "We'll find our way out of here. You need to get going now. Go as Serena...Alyssa didn't know who you are."

"But how could she not?" asked Serena. "The Spymaster must have told them..."

"Maybe not," I muttered. "Maybe he kept that knowledge to himself...to his own cell...to protect you." _He did have his regrets towards the end._ I managed to wriggle my arm free and start pushing my way out. "You don't have time to wait for us, Serena! Go now!"

"You five better not keep me waiting there again!" Serena answered after a moment's hesitation. I heard the patter of her footsteps as she dashed back in the direction of the Temple...

 **To Be Continued**

* * *

 **A/N:** Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating! The Japanese-style title card may have been spoiler-y, but I couldn't help myself :P

Not a lot of notes on this chapter...I don't know if the goofy scene at the start fit with the drama at the end, but hopefully my chapter felt balanced. I see the Shadows as the underdogs this time - Alyssa's more of a spy than a fighter, while Stephanie has barely been trained. Meanwhile, the Sailor Scouts have far more experience (plus Charon's advice) fighting Shadows...hopefully seeing Alyssa struggle against the Inner Scouts and Charon puts her request for Doctor Tomoe in perspective. Logan and Alyssa are both standing their ground...and now Alyssa knows Logan won't be swayed as easily as Stephanie may have hoped. Stephanie's perspective returns in the next chapter: soon it'll be HER turn to meet the Sailor Scouts in person.

As always, thanks for reading! Always looking forward to your reviews and feedback on what's working or what I may need to improve! Hope to see you soon!


	6. Those Villainous Sailor Scouts

**Chapter 6: Those Villainous Sailor Scouts**

 ** _Stephanie_**

 _I must have played two hours of Twister with Doctor Tomoe, and still no sign of Alyssa. Maybe that's why I faltered at the last minute – but Doctor Tomoe delivered on his promise._ I sat cross-legged in his communications room with my square tray of piping-hot food in my lap to the noise of Doctor Tomoe throwing things about in the lab again. _Maybe he was still scrounging to find a dinneer he liked?_

"You weren't kidding. These are loaded with salt!" _That didn't stop me from wolfing it down, though_. I yanked off what may have once been a spongy brownie off the tray. _Solid as a rock. Maybe I could convince Doctor Tomoe to play softball with it when we were done eating._

Doctor Tomoe shoved the comm room door open, his arms buckling under the weight of the gargantuan twenty-inch tube TV he carried. _They made them so big in his day!_ "Can't have – TV dinners – without – TV!"

I jumped up to help him, but he had already set it on the floor. "You really didn't have to bring that here, Doctor! I would have helped if you asked!"

"No, this was - my - treat!" Doctor Tomoe panted deeply. He fumbled behind the TV for a plug, shoved it into an electric outlet and powered it on to static. Tomoe vainly clicked the remote buttons before manically tossing it aside. "Blast it! Alyssa mentioned I'd need a converter box! Everything is going digital these days!"

"Yeah…the US switched to digital broadcast signals years ago. I'm pretty sure they made the switch here too," I sighed. "Doctor, I understand you're wary of technology that isn't completely obsolete yet, but I doubt satellite TV will increase the risk of demonic possession."

"Mmm-mmm." Doctor Tomoe stubbornly shook his head 'no'. "Alyssa's last trainee reminded me of a movie I saw years ago, about people who received a mysterious call and DIED within a week of watching a cursed TV show! That won't happen to me, nor will I increase the risk of heart attack with each monthly bill I'd have to pay for hundreds of shows I don't even watch! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Doctor Tomoe…" I waited for a lull in his laughing that never came. "I think you're talking about the Ring movies. I watched one, or at least the Western version. The characters died after watching a cursed VIDEOTAPE."

Doctor Tomoe abruptly fell silent. "I knew I should have gone with Betamax. I just wanted to be on the winning side for once!"

I set my tray to the floor and eagerly gulped the rest of my food when I heard Tomoe's door open. "Alyssa's back!" My enthusiasm waned when I actually saw her leaning against the table in Tomoe's lab. While her civilian clothes stayed untouched, her face was matted with dirt and bruises, her hair frizzy with frayed ends.

"Alyssa!" Doctor Tomoe also came barreling through his lab. "Who's responsible for this?!"

"It's nothing, Doctor…" Alyssa started shivering. "I went outdoors to check the sensors, see if I could get a better signal. I was careless – "

"I know you better than you give me credit for, Alyssa. You wouldn't be so careless as to catch hypothermia all while scorching and electrocuting yourself at the same time!" Doctor Tomoe's lenses took on an insidious glow. "You were attacked, and I know who it was…"

 _The gig was up._ I raised my hands, inching between him and Alyssa, _even if I really should have let her protect me._ "Doctor, she was waiting for the right time – "

"The ones you asked me to aid you against! They're here, searching for my lab…" Doctor Tomoe paused for an all-encompassing breath. "…and the Sailor Scouts didn't come to help."

"Yeah, they were a no-show. The Sailor Scouts are very picky about who they help these days," Alyssa 'confessed'. _Guess she wasn't ready to tell him the truth yet._ "

"I have an experimental biogenetic compound in storage." Doctor Tomoe went off to the side and started digging through his things again. "I stopped working on it when I saw the effects of Sailor Moon's crystal first-hand, but I know I kept a sample around here SOMEWHERE…"

Alyssa nodded after I glanced back at Doctor Tomoe to make sure he was out of earshot. "It WAS them, wasn't it?"

"The Inner Scouts..." Alyssa whispered.

"That's Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter…and Sailor Moon herself, right?" I recalled what the Shadows had taught me about them. _There was a second team, the Outer Scouts, though we knew less about them. And of course, now we had to worry about other Sailor Scouts from other solar systems raining down on us._

"Yeah…took them six years, but they're using their brains now. One of them, anyway," Alyssa grunted. "Steph…Logan was there. And he wasn't in duress."

I dropped to Alyssa's side, falling to the ground on my knees. "I could have stopped him from hurting you. I could have…talked him into coming home."

"It won't be that easy, Steph." Alyssa landed on her behind more abruptly. "Steph...if you can't get through to Logan, I need to know you can treat him as an enemy combatant. Not just as if he were one of the Sailor Scouts…we may need to put him down, Stephanie. If that's what it takes to save the Shadows - "

"He's not a rabid dog!" I snapped back, immediately regretting it. "I'm sorry…you know I want to protect the others too, but we can't give up on Logan before we've even tried. If it was just me and him…there has to be someone you can call. I know you don't want to risk the others, but you must have a team ready to go - "

"I don't. Not around here. The other Shadows aren't hiding in an underground bunker waiting for my call. I ordered them to scatter, cut all ties to the rest of us and blend in. The Sailor Scouts will be forced to hunt them one by one...but it works the other way too. We don't have that kind of time and even if we did, the Sailor Scouts are far more capable than I gave them credit for. They almost tracked us here…if we don't find the Survivor and find a way to keep them distracted, they ARE going to hunt us all down even if it takes them a thousand years to find the last one." Alyssa raised a finger to her lips when Doctor Tomoe yelped 'eureka' and returned with a gray marker-shaped pen.

"You may want to cover your eyes, Alyssa," warned Doctor Tomoe. My eyes bulged out when he opened the syringe pen. _There wasn't just one needle…it was a cone of NINE! Poor Alyssa, that looked like it was going to hurt._

Alyssa flinched when he stuck her. _It must have REALLY hurt for her to show it in front of him._ "I think that needle offsets any benefit from using your gel, Doctor!"

"Alyssa, if there's anything else I can do..." Doctor Tomoe's illuminated eyes fell on the genetic sample she had asked him to recreate earlier. _He must have thought 'well, anything but that,' in the moment._

"Just sit tight, Doctor. Try not to start anything weird until we get back!" Alyssa pleaded. She waved me off when I offered to help her. I looked behind to see Doctor Tomoe waving bye after us at the exit, and leaving us in the pitch black of the maze leading to the outdoors.

"I can't risk drawing the Scouts' attention again using our scanner. But I have a hunch: I took a detour in case I was being followed and came across someone being dragged off. He wore some kind of weird butterfly outfit and was rambling about Sailor Moon. I think it's our guy…or girl." Alyssa must have noticed my raised eyebrow, because she quickly added, "Tithon's report wasn't entirely clear on how the Starlights disguised themselves here on Earth."

"You think the Kinmokuan's LOOKING for Sailor Moon?" I asked. "Does he know the Starlights are tailing him?"

"We don't know if he's the only one," Alyssa sighed. "But if the Starlights want him behind bars, that's a good enough reason for me to go after him. Hmm…we can't stick to calling him 'the Kinmokuan.' The Starlights mentioned he was rebelling….how about, 'Thomas Jefferson'?"

"The Kinmokuan Thomas Jefferson? Yeah, OK!" I laughed. "Where do we start looking?"

Alyssa peeked into the construction zone that concealed her secret entrance. _Deserted...the workers must have all gone home._ "They carted him off in an ambulance. Not every hospital has a psych ward, I bet that's where they'll take him."

 _Oh no. Not another hospital…_

* * *

It took a sagging Alyssa to press me forward through the sliding doorsand into the distressed throngs of the sick and the frantic inside. Alyssa's insistence that she didn't need my help wore thinner until she allowed herself to lean on my shoulder.

"I hoped I'd never see the inside of another hospital," I sighed with a racing heart. "Wishful thinking."

"Not in our line of work. The Sailor Scouts have a habit of disintegrating their enemies," Alyssa grunted. _At least that hadn't happened to her…how lost I would be..._

I watched a surgical team race a stretcher through the emergency room doors. "I see my mom everywhere in this place. I watched her dying, all those years, and there was nothing I could do. School was my only distraction from the reminder I'd lose my mother one day. It was my escape…even if it meant turning someone else's life into hell there."

"Steph…don't talk about it like you got your mom sick, or that her death was some kind of divine retribution for how you treated others. Bad things happen to good people all the time." Alyssa trembled on my shoulder, so I reached down to steady her. "I wish I could have sent you on your own. Only Logan would recognize you. With me though…it's like the others also knew – "

I panicked when I felt a hand reach under Alyssa's armpit and start pulling her off of me. "WOAH! Easy, Steph!" Alyssa called me off after I reared my elbow back.

"We have one spot open in the emergency room!" _A nurse had come to help Alyssa...though her eyes were so focused on the disorderly mess of patients, family members, and staff that she barely noticed me._ "Get her a stretcher!"

I timidly called to the nurse: "my friend's not a patient!"  
 _  
_"We're out of stretchers!" A man dressed in green surgical clothes and rushed out of the emergency room doors. "We'll have to carry her in!"

"Wait, you can't take her to surgery!" I pleaded. But the surgeon also paid no attention to me and lifted Alyssa's other arm over HIS shoulder.

"You'll be fine," Alyssa tried assuring me. "Whoever gets to Mr. Jefferson's room first referees the next game with our good Doctor!"

"Alyssa!" I called out after her in vain as she disappeared behind the ER doors. "Don't leave me here alone. Not in a hospital. I know you said I'd be on my own someday, but I'm not ready yet..."

"I SAID EXCUSE ME!" I about-faced just in time to see a young man wearing a red business suit, hiding his eyes behind sunglasses - _indoors -_ before he shoved me out of his way with his shoulder. His long black hair, tied in a ponytail, left a number of unwelcome strands on my dress. _So rude! I wish I had an elbow ready for HIS face!_

"Let us through!" Another guy around the same age, also concealing his eyes behind dark lenses, rammed me in the same shoulder as he barreled through the chaotic waiting room after his pal. His long hair was brown but also done up in a ponytail, and he wore a suit in a light beige color. _Not that I wouldn't be able to tell they were in the same entourage without it..._

"Get out of the way!" A THIRD jerk with a white suit to match his long white hair, ALSO obscuring his face, brushed my OTHER shoulder and shoved me aside. _Where did these clowns think they were?!_

"Excuse me!" The three at least stopped when the head nurse called to them, sheltered from their shoulders by a desk, after they tried strutting past her. "Visiting hours are temporarily restricted except in emergency cases."

I slipped through the mass of impatient visitors just in time to watch the black-haired one in red lift one of his lenses...and WINK at the head nurse. "I got your exception right here."

I was close enough to see the head nurse not-so-subtly glare at him. "I'm married. Besides, I couldn't let you just walk in even on a normal day. You could tell me who you're visiting, at least."

"Don't worry, we'll throw in an autograph for your hubby too!" _What I wouldn't give to slap the guy in the red suit!_ He swung around to the pair he came in with. "Do you guys mind throwing me a bone instead of leaving all the talking to me?"

"Your patients, young and old, will be thrilled," the brunette one added with little enthusiasm.

"Sure, they'll jump from their beds and dance out of here when they see us," monotoned the white-haired one. _Even they couldn't be smug enough to believe that...well, maybe they were._

"Security!" The head nurse waved over another well-dressed pair: these two were clad in dark blue suits with matching ties and gray epaulets on their shoulder. The young adult in the red business suit began smirking. _He thought she was letting them in, with a bonus entourage to lead them through_. "Can you please escort these three...OFF hospital grounds?"

I couldn't help smirking myself when I saw one security guard grab the white and beige-dressed duo by their upper biceps, while the other guard tugged at the red-suited wannabe ringleader.

"No thanks! We'll find our own way in!" The bead of sweat hanging off the ringleader's forehead hinted even HE was starting to catch on.

"You'll still need a doctor's note to get your heads examined," taunted the head nurse.

"You have to let us through!" insisted the ringleader when the guards dragged the trio through the onlookers and towards the exit. "We're famous!"

"Really? Your mugshots posted somewhere?" one of the guards asked smugly, before they unceremoniously tossed the obnoxious trio out of the hospital. _At least the scene had briefly kept the waiting room entertained. Back to business...Alyssa wasn't here, but this was my chance to show her I could figure things out on my own. Besides, she said she'd be there when I found our Kinmokuan Thomas Jefferson. I just needed a quieter place to work out my own plan for getting into the hospital. I didn't need the head nurse tossing ME out with them!_  
 _  
_

* * *

 _What a relief._ With a bit of exploring, I found a locker room beside the jam-packed waiting room. The walls were aligned with aisles of wooden cabinets, just large enough to fit a pair of shoes, and opened by a single knob on each. Other than that, the room wasn't so impressive: it was painted a dull gray color and only a single window offered a glimpse into the bleak outdoors.

 _Compared to how chaotic the waiting room was, this one was completely deserted...TOO quiet for me, maybe._ I had to inhale and exhale, counting to four like Alyssa reminded me, in order to calm myself. _I didn't want to go back to those days, scurrying to any group I could find just to avoid being alone. Logan had to endure the same for years, and not by choice..._

I darted behind one of the cabinets when I heard the window creak open. Three figures tumbled through, all brushing snow off their expensive suits. _Just my luck. Them again..._

 __"Seiya, are you kidding?! This will lead us right back into the lobby! " The white-suited one snapped at his ringleader. _So Seiya was the name of the obnoxious flirt wearing red._

"Are we going to keep stumbling through windows at random until we fall through the right one?" sighed the brunette wearing beige, also the tallest of the three. "We don't have time for that!"

"Yeah? What would you suggest, Taiki?" Seiya retorted _. That was two out of three named...not that I was hoping I'd remember them, but I figured it was good practice for being a spy._ "Blast our way in?"

"Why not, Seiya?" asked the one groupee whose name I didn't have yet. "Because SHE wouldn't want us to?"

"How dare you, Yaten! I already told you this has nothing to do with her!" _I sure hoped 'blast our way in' was a local play on words I wasn't familiar with._ From where I was peeking, I noticed Seiya clench his hands into fists, even as he kept his arms firmly at his side.

"You still care about her, though." Taiki insisted. He had bleached the smugness from his voice, even if he was still talking down to his companion. "I see your eyes light up every time we hint seeing her again!"

"Spare yourself the heartbreak, Seiya," Yaten urged. "You remember she had a fiancé. She's likely married him by now, and he won't appreciate your...attachment. There's only one woman we should be focused on right now."

"I am. SHE's the reason we're here," Seiya answered. _As if they weren't so disturbing before, now Seiya and his friends sounded like they belonged to a cult_. Seiya's eyes shifted in my direction. _He hadn't seen me, but he sensed someone was in the room with him._ "Excuse me! Private conversation here!"

 _Seiya's tone startled me in a way few people other than my mother's could...well, her and the Starlights._ I backed up and accidentally knocked over an ill-placed broom, drawing all of their collective stares.

"Yeah! Buzz off, Peeping Tom!" Yaten shouted. This time, there was no mistaking his words were directed towards me.

"Uh, sorry!" I emerged from my hiding spot and bowed before them. I remembered that the Japanese bowed a lot, though the pony-tailed trio looked as unimpressed as before. _If I'd known ahead of time, I would have studied Japanese culture and customs_. _As it was, I never knew I'd even set foot outside the US._ I tried to retain my composure: "I'm not familiar with local customs. Is it traditional to wear sunglasses indoors? And at night?"

Yaten furrowed his eyebrows, his emerald eyes bearing down on me as if he expected I would wither and curl up into a ball. "Where did you come from? Smart Alecsville, USA?"  
 _  
Seiya may have done most of the talking before, but the other apples clearly hadn't fallen far from the tree_. I crossed my arms and matched Yaten's stare. "Is this what YOU were famous for? Beating everyone in New York City out for the title of Rudest People on Earth?!"

Yaten leaned back with widened emerald eyes, as if he wasn't used to others spitting his condescending words back to him. _Maybe Yaten deserved that...but I sounded too much like my younger, Queen of Mean self back there._

Seiya abruptly threw off his sunglasses to stare at me with his own pair of bewildered blue eyes. "Hold on! Don't tell me YOU don't recognize us either!"

"Uh..." I shook my head back and forth. "Sorry. I said I wasn't from around here - "

"But we're global sensations!" _Seiya actually sounded...desperate?_ _Even more than he was to get into the hospital!_

"She knows who we are," Taiki dismissed. "She's just playing us hot and cold!"

Taiki's words made me want to huff and puff again. "I'd rather play twenty questions with ANYONE outside this room!"

"You don't really mean that..." I could have sworn that Seiya's lip was quivering when I turned my back on him. _How was I gonna explain that I was held up by three suited weirdos to Alyssa? I needed to get my mind back on the mission, I was NOT going to suffer another game of Twister with Tomoe!_

"WAIT!" Seiya cried out and stopped me in my tracks. I turned to find him on his knees with his arms stretched towards me like we were acting in a Shakespearean play. "You're giving up so easily?!"

"You moved on quickly, didn't you?" sighed Taiki. _Oh God. Seiya wasn't flirting with me, was he?!"  
_  
"I'm sorry for bruising your ego," I shot back with enough sarcasm to let him know I wasn't interested. "But your friends don't approve - "

"But no one's ever walked out on us THAT quickly before! Well, not besides - " Seiya cut himself off before he said a name. _Maybe he was referring to that OTHER woman his friends lacked eyes for._ "Are we on the wrong planet?!"

"It's better that no one remembers us." Yaten strode forward to pat his narcissistic leader on the shoulder. "No more pushing our way through crowds of teenage girls to get anywhere, no more annoying ditzy blondes chasing us with movie tickets - "

"That does sound bad when you put it that way, Yaten," Taiki joked.

Yaten face-palmed. "Don't tell me you miss the one with the red hair ribbon! No self-loathing masochist on this planet could be desperate enough to want HER attention!"

"You guys are missing the point!" Seiya blurted out and rose from his knees. "All those performances were for HER: the only woman in the galaxies! We had so many fans because they heard us singing in the hopes she'd hear us calling! Even if they think we disbanded four years ago, how could they forget all the emotion we poured into our music?!"

 _The only woman in the galaxies...Oh no! I remembered where I heard THAT line! Of all the stars I could have met, why these three?! And Alyssa said there WASN'T some existential force punishing me?!_

Calm down. Get it together...maybe I can get the Three Lights off my back with a little small-talk. And appease Seiya by giving him the female attention he shamelessly craves.

"NOW I remember you!" I plastered on the best smile I could. "You're the Three Lights! I saw you play at the Fantastic International Music Festival!"

Seiya breathed a sigh of relief. "FINALLY! At least you remember something about us!"

"Wait - you were at the concert? You said you weren't from around here," Yaten asked. _Maybe he was trying to engage in a bit of conversation himself to make up for earlier...though reading faces still wasn't my forte. Seiya was transparent enough but the other two were either harder to read or locked in grumpy mode._

"I saw the concert on TV," I explained. "You played with a teal-haired woman on the violin. She was SO good!"

"You mean Michelle Kaioh?" Seiya's look of discontent was back. "She was never one of the Three Lights. That was a joint concert."

"I remember!" I tried picturing myself through their eyes, and my smile looked faker and faker the more I kept up this charade. "Even halfway around the world, you had your fans!"

"But...you liked our music too, right?" _Damn, Seiya honed in on my choice of words._

"Uh, I..." _Wished someone had unplugged your instruments so I could hear Michelle play actual music. No, don't say that, Steph! Claiming that I barely remembered the concert wasn't the keenest response either, considering how this talk started._ "I just prefer more...classical music."

"But our music is classic," Seiya babbled. "Nobody's ever criticized us before."

 _Talk about overindulged!_ "I just meant...I would have liked to hear more of Michelle on the violin. I just thought there were...too many cooks in the kitchen, you know?"

Seiya suddenly turned on his companions. "Now I remember - these two were trying to upstage me again!"

"Upstage you?!" complained Taiki. "Remember when we signed up for that dance-musical? That director was always hardest on YOU!"

"That never stopped you or Yaten from always trying to squeeze me out of the limelight!" Seiya grumbled.  
 _  
_"This from the master stage hog?" Yaten jumped into the three-way argument. "We only needed ONE guitar that night at the festival! YOU'RE the one who can't go five minutes without showing off!"

"Listen guys," I pleaded and pointed down towards my wristwatch. "I have somewhere I need to be too!"

"Oh yeah, sure! Maybe you and I - " Seiya glared at his partners. "JUST YOU AND I can grab coffee tomorrow and pick this up later?"

 _Oh no! He IS asking me out!_ "Oh...well, I'm hardly a music critic - "

"I say we hold our own jam session, the FOUR of us, and SHE can tell us who's outshining who!" Taiki demanded, with Yaten nodding in agreement. _A one-on-one jam session with soon-to-be my least favorite singing group EVER?! I'd rather go back in time to join Tithon's cell!_

"GUYS!" I yelled over their bickering. "This is only my opinion! ONE OPINION! Against the millions upon millions of fans you have! Can't you just be happy that you were ever idols? Don't you realize how many people would give anything to have your lives for ten minutes?"

The Three Lights faced each other in solemn thought, not mouthing a single word. _Maybe they were finally reflecting on my points..._

-"You signed us up for that show with the pets knowing it would cut into OUR rehearsal time!"

-"You never stick to the lyrics I write! You thought I wouldn't notice your little 'tweaks'?"

-"Hey, I wrote most of those songs when you were too busy flipping your hair in front of the cameras and flirting with the first thing you saw moving!"

 _Gentle Steph clearly wasn't working. Maybe my mean old self still had her place in rare circumstances..._

"I JUST WANTED ONE MINUTE TO MYSELF! CRAWL INTO ANOTHER WINDOW, RESURRECT YOUR FAN CLUB, FALL IN A SEWER - I DON'T CARE! JUST GET OUT OF HERE!"

The Three Lights abruptly halted their arguing and stared at me. _They must not have been used to someone telling them off, either._ Seiya mouth awkwardly opened before he spoke: "so...I'll meet you in the park at eleven, tomorrow?"

"NO!" I screeched, "PLEASE TAKE A HINT AND BUZZ OFF ALREADY!"

"Loosen up, Peeping Tom!" Seiya teased. "I can take you out for a relaxing massage - "

"Trying to massage three egos at once is what got me worked up in the first place!" I snarled.

Yaten leaned in to whisper into Seiya's ear: "shot down!"

"Shut up!" Seiya hissed. "I can tell YOU don't have a boyfriend, Miss Impossibly High Standards! Come on guys!"

"I think meatball head was the last one who turned you down, too!" Taiki teased Seiya before slithering outside after him. _Meatball Head...I heard that name in Charon Castle before. The Starlights...Sailor Star Fighter had referred to someone by that name! Were they the same infamous trio? At least if they were, I could tell Alyssa I stalled them. But now I had to make up for lost time._

"OK, Steph: remember why you came here. How do I get past that nurse?" As if providence had answered me, I found a pink-and-white striped outfit hanging over an abandoned cart. _It looked like a candy striper outfit…what the high school girls who volunteered at my mom's hospital wore. Most of the teenagers were nice to me…it just brought back unpleasant memories._

Wait, that was my ticket in! I could pose as a volunteer!

I took a quick look around the locker room in case I had any of own peeping toms. _I was lucky nobody came in while the Three Lights were hassling me._ When I reached down, I found a pair of ragged green slippers that looked like they'd been worn hundreds of times lying beside the cart. I remembered the Japanese had something about taking off your shoes indoors too.

"Ugh…does that mean I have to put THESE on?"

* * *

"I'll come back for you." I promised my shoes before I lowered the cabinet door over them.

"Excuse me." The head nurse had noticed me trying to slip by, pushing the cart alongside a family that had just been allowed through. "Are you a volunteer? I wasn't aware we were scheduling any past five o'clock."

 _She noticed me! Was it the slippers? I bet it was the slippers! Quick Steph, think how a cool Japanese metropolitan high school student would answer!_ "I was just, totally bored up in my room and my bro was using our shindigs to host the lamest party ever! So I thought I'd rack up mo' street cred cuz helpin' others is DA BOMB!"

A few staff members stared at me as they passed by. The head nurse's own mouth had fallen ajar. "If we didn't need all the help we could get, I'd put you in the psych ward next to the guy with messy hair and glasses."

"Right, psych ward. Could you remind me where that is, so I can steer clear of it?" _Messy hair with glasses didn't sound like our guy, but I'd bet the one the Starlights were looking for would be there._

"Brad's on shift tonight, he can direct you." The nurse planted her knees on the table and rubbed her eyes. "We do appreciate the help. It's just been a crazy night. We still have patients who got caught up between the Sailor Scouts and...whoever they're fighting."

I hated thinking we...the Spymaster's cell at least, had a hand in this, but we did what we had to. Right?

The nurse began piling dinner trays and basins on my cart. "The gentleman in the first room on the right needs his sheets changed, then everyone in that wing can use a sponge bath…" _The whole wing?!_ "We just admitted the patient in the corner on the left-hand side from surgery, see if he'd like something to eat…"

 _Psych ward, psych ward, psych ward…hopefully someone else would tend to the patients I was supposed to._ There was no hint of one on the directions posted on each corner I passed, but I ran into a security guard holding still in the hallway. Imposing as he was, even he shuddered when we heard screaming from one of the rooms.

A woman in a red business suit leaned out of one doorway and waved to the guard. "Everything's fine! My patient is just groggy from the sedatives."

"Let me know if you change your mind. I'll send someone in there." As the woman – _a therapist from the sound of it –_ rescinded behind the doorway, the security guard turned to me. "I thought volunteer hours were long over. I think you took a wrong turn, you don't want to be anywhere near this part of the hospital. The psych ward was already stuffed and now we've got another one raving about the Sailor Scouts."

I caught the guard staring at the dome of food sitting on my cart. _I'll bet he was awfully hungry at this hour..._ "I...um...I hope I'm not embarrassing him, but I was hoping to visit someone in between rounds."

The guard's face soured quickly. "Your name's not Molly, is it?"

"Uh..." _Just go with it._ "What if that's me?"

"You're here for the guy with glasses and the messy hair?" The guard sighed. "He's finally sleeping after days of threatening to 'unleash his hexapoda fighting style" on the hospital staff. We didn't believe him when he said he had a girlfriend. It's none of my business, but personally...I think you can do WAY better."

I feigned a look of indignity. "He's still my sweet-ums! I'll let him snooze, I promise!" I peeked under one of the trays... _jackpot!_ I slid out a piece of chocolate cake and asked, "I don't suppose THIS would help my case?"

The guard's will crumbled before my eyes. "I can keep an eye on your cart. Just...make it quick."

"Thanks! I rolled my cart off to the side and strode past him. _HA! I got in first try! Three Lights, eat your hearts out!  
_  
I heard frantic and loud whispering, followed by heavy footsteps pacing back and forth, behind one of the doors. _The same one I heard screaming earlier. I did NOT want to choose the wrong door in a place like this._ Making sure the guard's head was still turned away, I pressed my ear against the door and heard the therapist I saw earlier:

"I understand you feel uncomfortable speaking with me. You've...clearly suffered some deeply traumatic experiences involving women. I can ask my male colleague to visit you in the morning. Maybe a good night's sleep will do you some good - "

"You don't get it! NO ONE ON THIS PLANET GETS IT!" I nearly jumped backwards from the door-rattling voice that answered her. "They disguise themselves as both! They ARE both! They'll hunt me to the ends of this planet and beyond unless Sailor Moon convinces them!"

"You keep speaking about 'this planet'. Do you mean that in a figurative sense?" _I envied his therapist...how she could maintain her calm in the face of someone screaming at her._

"Molly, you forget where your boyfriend's room was?" The security guard had noticed me lingering.

I cast him a quick smile. "Just…listening to my darling Melvin breathing." I pressed myself against the door and faked enchantment.

"O-K. I take it back, you're a perfect match," the guard smart-mouthed and turned his back on me. _Sheesh, it's not like I was filming him sleep!_

After a deep breath, I thrust the door open and quickly shut it behind me. A pacing figure straight out of a Russian folk tale halted when he saw me. His mottled, discolored gray outfit was loose-fitting: his sleeves and coattails trailed behind him like the wings of a butterfly. With his head tilted to the side, I saw that he had tied his black hair in a ponytail. _He had cut it haphazardly at the ends: maybe he once kept it as long as the Starlights. Otherwise, he appeared like any one of us. This was the one the Starlights were looking for, I was sure of it._

The Kinmokuan pointed at me with a trembling hand, with the quaking voice to match. "They...they looked just like her! The fair skin...the colorful features…straight out of my nightmares!"

Sitting beside his barebones hospital bed was the same woman in business clothes. She folded her hands and stared, not doing the least to hide her annoyance with ME. "You're not supposed to be here at this hour. And you look a little old for a high school student."

"How dare you! My nana called me 'Baby Face'!" I snapped back.

"Your nana?" _'Nana' wasn't likely a word commonly used here._ "Which high school are you attending?"

"Oh, I…just recently transferred here. To summer school! Our education system is WAY behind yours, apparently!" The therapist jumped out of her chair at the sound of someone in the hallway collapsing. _Must have been the security guard I talked to earlier. I had to get the Kinmokuan out...and that meant getting his therapist out of the way._ "I'm sorry I have to do this."

My Shadow robes appeared with a flash of light, blinding her long enough to place her in a sleeper hold. The Kinmokuan dropped to the floor and crawled into the corner while I struggled with the therapist, until she eventually passed out. I breathed a sigh of relief when Alyssa, still wearing the same blood-stained shirt, appeared in the doorway.

"You just got here?" she teased.

"So did you," I shot back. "AND I got here first."

"Don't get full of yourself. YOU didn't have to sneak out of an emergency room while being prepped for surgery," Alyssa reminded me.

I looked over to the Kinmokuan huddled in the corner. "These three obnoxious guys held me up. Seriously, Alyssa…I think it was THEM. Undercover."

"AAAHHH!" The Kinmokuan hollered and raised his arms. _The universal sign for surrender, it seemed._ _I hadn't even said who 'they' were._ "I just wanted them to leave me alone. I left EVERYTHING behind and they still chased me throughout the stars!"

"Steph," Alyssa pulled me in close to her. "I wouldn't want to carry him out either, but we won't get far with him squealing!"

The Kinmokuan 'Thomas Jefferson' pointed to the therapist on the floor. "Everyone on this planet thinks I'm crazy. No, I'm not crazy! The other Sailor Scouts...the-the-the Animamates destroyed our planet. Princess Kakyuu and the Starlights – they left them us behind! The Animamates tortured me and they tortured me some more when they saw I wasn't breaking! I kept my life...and my sanity. YES! I was the only one! The Starlights came back and said they'd make things the way they were before, but they couldn't make the memories go away! They saw that I was still sane, sane enough to realize we didn't need them OR their Princess, so they thought they could just pick up where the Animamates left off! But they don't have the bracelets! THEY CAN'T CONTROL ME!"

"The Sailor Animamates ravaged most of the universe in Galaxia's name. Tithon's notes mentioned she controlled them using special bracelets ," Alyssa explained.

"Maybe Tomoe had it together enough to hatch evil schemes, but this guy's only one egg away from emptying the basket!" I whispered to Alyssa.

"If he's acting, we should remind him to pick up his Academy Award before he goes home," Alyssa whispered back. "Let's hope he'll be compliant, at least."

"Sailor Moon has to protect me," the Kinmokuan ranted. "I've wandered the cosmos fleeing the Starlights. No power in the galaxy can oppose the Sailor Scouts, that's why they always win! Only another Sailor Scout was able to stop Galaxia!"

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Thanks for the pep talk."

"SUPER MOON CRISIS POWER!" A young girl's voice cried out from the hallway, followed by another:

"SATURN CRYSTAL POWER!"

"Sailor Scouts! M-Maybe they can take us to Sailor Moon!" squealed the Kinmokuan. "WE'RE IN – "

"ZIP IT!" hissed Alyssa. _There was no window for us to climb out…of course, this was a psych ward. At least no windows meant no Seiya crawling through at the worst possible time._

"You're right!" the Kinmokuan panicked and darted back and forth across the room fast enough to make my head spin. "What if they're Animamates? Back to finish what they started, what the Starlights wanted to continue! I won't become a Phage!"

Alyssa came up behind him, made a fist with her right hand, and knocked him on the back of the neck. The Kinmokuan's arms flew outward and he spasmed to the floor, twitching several eerie seconds before falling still.

"Tap to the nerve stem," Alyssa explained. "I think you're ready to move on to those."

 _We were NOT off to a good start with 'Thomas Jefferson'. Not such a fitting name for him anymore..._ "Are the Starlights here?" I asked when Alyssa peeked through the door.

"No. The munchkin duo's out in the hallway," Alyssa hissed. She quickly leaned back behind the door and let her Shadow master robes take form around her. "They got lucky, finding that guard."

"Munchkins? I know they're Sailor Scouts too, but I still don't want to beat up kids!" _It wasn't their fault they were brainwashed._

"Our mission is to get Thomas Jefferson out, not sock a couple preschoolers. But they won't feel bad about kicking the snot out of US." Alyssa stared at the Kinmokuan lying in the corner, close to the bed frame. "Purple's standing guard in the hallway. You and I could get past her, the hard part is getting HIM out with us and not being followed."

"How do we do that?" I asked. Alyssa's guilty look told me I already knew the answer. "Let me guess...I'm the bait, again?"

"We don't have time to debate this! Get under the bed!" Alyssa hissed at the light patter of footsteps approaching our door. Alyssa helped throw the Kinmokuan over me and roll us under his bed. _Woah, I wasn't expecting him to weigh a ton! What did he eat while he was on the run?_

* * *

I slowed my breathing when the door creaked open. Lifting the Kinmokuan's body just enough for a peek, I watched a pair of pink bootheels step into the room. She came up to the bed just close enough for me to notice the gold crescent moon insignias on the borders of her knee-high boots, before she swiveled the therapist's way. _There was no fitting her under the bed too. The only space left for Alyssa was the closet, unless she could cling to the wall like a spider_.

"Sailor Saturn! There's someone else in here!" the girl with the bubble gum-colored boots called, presumably to the other Sailor Scout. _Her voice had only started deepening._ _She couldn't be older than thirteen, maybe fourteen at the absolute most._ "She's out cold. Just like Charon would have done it. I hope they're alright." _She knew Logan...but I couldn't tell if her concern for 'them' included him._

"I'm sure they are," another pre adolescent voice answered her from the doorway. _How could the Sailor Scouts start them off so young?_ "Luna and Artemis will be there if they were at the scene of the accident. It's Sailor Moon we need to find."

"I know I don't have the right to get mad at her for running off," Mini Moon sighed. _She'd run away before? Why? Did some of them have doubts too? Alyssa and the other Shadows seemed to doubt that, and I could understand why: if they really thought the Sailor Scouts would impose a global monarchy on Earth and live off the rest of us. They would be the ones to benefit...but at least one of them had to have a conscience._

"But this was clearly the Shadows' work, Mini Moon," replied the other voice... _Sailor Saturn's._ The other Sailor Scout – _Mini Moon -_ was joined by a pair of violet stiletto boots laced up to the knees. _NOW they were gathered in the same room. Suppose Alyssa wasn't here…how would I get out of this one with an unconscious Kinmokuan tow truck on back?_

"What'll we do if we run into them by our - wait, they hid another under the bed!" I buried myself back under the Kinmokuan after a pair of white gloves reached under the bed to drag him out. _And me along with him._

"His garment...it's plain and discolored, but still beautiful. The fabric reminds me of the dress the Starlights' Princess wore..." observed Sailor Saturn's voice. With an unfortunate tug, one of the Survivor's 'wings' wrapped around my arm and pulled it into view of the Sailor Scouts. I felt the tip of a very sharp object press into my arm, and a far less childish voice threatened me: "COME OUT! SLOWLY!"

"We know you're a Shadow! Show yourself!" Sailor Mini Moon's tone was just as commanding. _Maybe they were still young...but they were still Sailor Scouts, the ones who wiped Tokyo and Charon Castle clean of the Sypmaster's best. Right now, that was enough to terrify me_. I briefly held out hope that Alyssa would intervene, but after a second had passed, I teleported out from under the Kinmokuan and reappeared in the doorway. I briefly caught the backs of their white leotards, their billowy back ribbons, and the colored skirts to match their boots before I dashed away.

"SATURN SILENT PRISM!" She encased me within a translucent dome of pure energy. The young pair matched out of the doorway with their gait reflecting the same air of superiority shown by the Starlights _._ I noticed these Sailor Scouts' chokers, their tiaras, elbow fittings to match their respective colors, and their earrings: Saturn's were pearls in the shape of the planet she was named for, with diamonds hanging from them. Sailor Mini Moon's were shaped as crescent moons, and her hair was adorned with feather-shaped white barrettes. Both of them looked the part of the Princess: especially Mini Moon, with her pink hair in a rabbit-head style I hadn't seen before. Her irises were red, while Saturn's reflected both Alyssa's violet eyes and the hue in her otherwise shoulder-cropped raven hair. _Maybe they were as scared of me as I was of them...but I couldn't see it_. They had both drawn weapons on me…Mini Moon carried a pink kaleidoscope wand of sorts, but Saturn carried a polearm bearing an intimidating sickle-shaped scythe.

"Try that again and you'll be sorry," warned Sailor Saturn. Added the pink Sailor Scout. _Bravo Alyssa, your plan to draw them away from the Kinmokuan completely is working…NOW GET ME OUT OF HERE!_

Sailor Saturn lowered the barrier she had placed around me, then spun her impressive polearm weapon in the air. She mesmerized me with her precision before she she dropped the razor-sharp end less than half a millimeter away from my throat.

"Wait! Aren't you supposed to make an introduction?" I trembled.

"You know who we are," Sailor Mini Moon scoffed. "Did you kidnap Sailor Moon and attack the others? Or did you drop by to pick on sick patients on your way to finish off the Temple?"

"Why would I want to attack a Temple?! This is my first day in this country, I don't know where anything is!" I blabbered. "Is that a real blade?!"

"Stop playing innocent and answer our questions!" Sailor Saturn pressed the tip of her scythe against my throat, enough for me to feel it this time. _One ounce of pressure was the only difference between life and death!_ "Or this will be your last breath..."

 **To Be Continued**

* * *

 **A/N:** Cliffhanger! :/ sorry guys, I tried avoiding it but the alternative was ending it earlier. This chapter was already getting long for me - in fact, I think it's the longest I've ever written! I hope you had fun - with Lisseas' advice, I'm growing more confident writing the Starlights. I've watched about half of Sailor Stars, and I'll admit I'm not a fan myself...but I think there's humor to be found in watching them deal with their newfound obscurity ;)

Stephanie, if I hadn't mentioned before, started as a one-shot character but is fast becoming a favorite to write - I hope she's as interesting to read as Logan! I'm a guy, so writing from a woman's perspective (and seeing her fend off hormone-driven guys!) is definitely a new experience for me, so I hope I did my female readers justice!

One of the most appealing parts of writing from her perspective was seeing a fight unfold from the other perspective. It's one thing to watch the Sailor Scouts blow away teams of faceless Shadows who rarely had a chance to dive into their motives. I hope that knowing Stephanie's backstory, and her relationships (with Alyssa, Doctor Tomoe and Logan) keeps you from wanting to watch Sailor Saturn run her through next chapter.

Of course, I did NOT plan on casting Sailors Mini Moon and Saturn, or all the Sailor Scouts, as the antagonists here!" I may have enjoyed painting them as the "bad guys" a little too much XD I think perspective goes a long way to coloring our view on who the good guys and bad guys are. Maybe that scene made you feel uncomfortable, but that was the point. Stephanie, Logan and most of my OCs didn't have the benefit of watching the show or having front row seats for what was going on in Tokyo. Stephanie recognized they were just as scared as she was...of course, it's easy to forget when you have one Sailor Scout holding a scythe to your neck while the other watches on!

This was a packed chapter, and the ending may leave room for controversy: I hope you'll review or leave me a note, let me know what you think! Thanks for reading, as always!


	7. Sheep in Wolf's Clothing

**Chapter 7: Sheep in Wolf's Clothing**

(Chapter Revised 2/6/2016)

 ** _Stephanie_**

Each innocent gulp I took was punished by the sharpened tip of Sailor Saturn's scythe. Pressed so deeply against the center of my throat, one wrong move on my part - or one slip by Sailor Saturn - would spell death for me. _Her acrobatic display of finesse with her polearm weapon gave me one small comfort: her skill ensured the latter was unlikely to happen._ But I didn't dare risk another look at her violet eyes, fearing she had the temperament of a raging bull. Instead, I looked to her pink-haired friend for sympathy, but found little in her devil-red eyes.

"Please, Do you BOTH need to be pointing weapons at me?!" As insurance, Sailor Mini Moon also pointed deceptively toy-like kaleidoscope rod my way as if it were a handgun. Despite her threatened deafness to my pleas, I tried to reason with her. "This is overkill!"

"We're not taking chances," Sailor Mini Moon scoffed _. Only the Sailor Scouts could make a tween girl in pink and adorned in ostentatious jewelry the subject of my future nightmares if I survived this!_ "Last chance to reconsider!" Mini Moon resumed her threat. "One! Two - "  
 _  
_"I swear I never met Psycho Moon!" I belted out. I felt my face turn blue: even Saturn's blade nicking my neck with each breath couldn't slow my panting. "The name wasn't my idea! Maybe I could think straight if you weren't pointing a knife in my face and threatening to blast me with your wand à la Magic the Gathering! But I can take a guess what you'll do to me if I just lie and pretend I know so I'm not!"

"This isn't working," Sailor Mini Moon sighed. I held out a brief flicker of hope that she would call Saturn off, but I only needed to see the Scout clad in purple crease her eyebrows to know she wouldn't let out even if ordered.

"I know she's lying!" Sailor Saturn pressed into me even more, forcing me against the back wall. With my mom's image flashing before my eyes, I lost control of my tongue and started babbling at the top of my lungs...

"No, I'm not! I've always been scared of knives! I even dropped out of cooking class when I saw the ones I'd have to use, even though I'd save a ton of money if I didn't have to order food all the time! I don't even butter my toast!"

With my tongue back under control following shortness of breath, I dared a peek at my captors. I avoided the vengeful glare of judgment that I expected from Sailor Saturn. Instead, I looked to Mini Moon's face over her shoulder...her mouth was locked into a quizzical 'o' and she squinted to the point her eyes shrank into tiny dots. _The Japanese had some weird facial expressions._ Slightly more emboldened, I found Saturn's eyes mimicked that very expression.

"You...may want to find another job if you're telling the truth," sighed Mini Moon.  
 _  
_"Say we believe you," offered Sailor Saturn, FINALLY pulling back her weapon back enough so it wasn't grazing my skin...though only barely. "You don't know where she is, but the Shadows were behind her disappearance. What can you tell us about them?"

I was still panting out of breath following my latest tirade. _If Alyssa WAS watching from afar, waiting for the right moment to drop to my rescue - THOUGH RIGHT NOW WOULD BE JUST FINE! - or watching to see if I'd squeal on her - it must have taken every ounce of steely resolve not to burst out laughing._ A garbled, creaking noise was all that escaped my throat when I tried to answer the young Sailor Scouts, so I wordlessly mouthed 'no' and shook my head.

"Wait, Sailor Saturn..." Mini Moon had also dropped her wand, but she was eyeing me more closely. "Her robes are different from the ones Gra...er, the Spymaster's team wore."

 _Gra? What was she about to call him?_

"Sailor Jupiter and Charon mentioned they fought Shadows wearing different uniforms," Sailor Saturn noted. "Charon said they might have been with...HER."

 _God...Charon wasn't merely present, he actually killed Alyssa's team himself! Now I wanted to puke as if I didn't feel badly enough already._

"But I thought she was in - " Sailor Mini Moon stopped herself, but I knew exactly who she was referring to. _Alyssa. PLEASE don't ask..._ "Your leader...describe her to us? Can you tell us if she's in the city?"

 _No...I couldn't betray Alyssa. No way, even if she did abandon me to the mercy of the Sailor Scouts...which I know she didn't._ Sick to my stomach and out of breath, I stuttered..."I can't..."

Sailor Mini Moon clutched her wand tightly and clenched her other fist. "You can't tell us, or you don't want to?"

Sailor Saturn resumed pressing her weapon against my neck. "Were you sincere about quitting the Shadows?"

 _Quit the Shadows? What did I say that made them think I wanted to QUIT? How could I, knowing Sailor Moon brainwashes children into sticking up adults in the middle of a hospital?!_

"Or are you just stalling?" Sailor Mini Moon continued with a harsher tone. "Don't play games with us, we know all your tricks!"

"Uh, Mini Moon?!" Sailor Saturn's voice held a glint of disbelief, just as the hallway began spinning. "I...think she's hyperventilating."

I caught Sailor Mini Moon's eyes shrink into dots again... _unless that was my eyesight starting to go haywire_. "O...K...I've never seen a Shadow try THAT one before," she admitted.

"If we let her keep breathing that fast, she'll pass out for sure." Sailor Saturn sighed, though her eyes and weapon remained fixated on me.

"You think she's doing this on purpose, so she won't have to answer us?" Mini Moon asked. _All I could do was gasp and stare up at them like a carp flopping around on dry land...I had no breath left to answer them with. My extremities also felt numb._

"STOP IT!" Sailor Saturn resumed pressing her glaive to my neck, but her grip shook when my breathing didn't slow and she quietly retracted her blade.

"I was just asking, Saturn! I don't know if she is!" Sailor Mini Moon panicked. "How do we tell if she's acting?"

"I don't know! Charon has a lot more experience with this!" Sailor Saturn cringed. _Just hearing his name in the same breath as the Sailor Scouts gave me a stomachache._

"What do we do? What do we do? Wait - I know!" Sailor Mini Moon raised her pointer finger in the air as if she had a 'eureka' moment. "I'll find a paper bag!"

"How will THAT help?!" asked a puzzled Sailor Saturn, but Sailor Mini Moon had already charged into the Survivor's abandoned room. _Alyssa must have carried him out while these two were interrogating me...hopefully we accomplished our mission, at the very least._

"Beats me how! But the school nurse gave my classmate one when the same thing happened to him!" Mini Moon shouted through the doorway. _School: the same place these two should have learned NOT TO GO AROUND POINTING SHARP OBJECTS AT PEOPLE!_ Saturn and I could hear the ruckus of Mini Moon sifting through drawers and haphazardly tossing miscellaneous items on the floor.

"Just...sit down." Sailor Saturn lowered her weapon just so that it was now pointed at my chest. I slid down to the floor as she commanded, though she quickly reinstated her harsh glare. "No passing out, or else."

"What kind of hospital wouldn't have one?!" Sailor Mini Moon complained and planted a hand on the doorframe to swing herself into the next room...only to yelp and fall backwards immediately after. Sailor Saturn tilted her head just enough to witness the commotion, although I didn't dare make a break for it. Alyssa taught me to recognize lines of sight: Sailor Saturn kept me in her peripheral vision like a trained soldier, even when her curiosity relegated me to a second priority.

Sailor Mini Moon backed up to the shuddering voice of a crazed twenty-something-year-old male snapping back at her. "I knew Sucker Moon would send her minions to finish me off when she heard about the thrashing I gave Tuxedo Chump!"

"Not him again," Sailor Saturn groaned. Befitting of being placed in the room next to the Kinmokuan, the patient emerged with a blanket wrapped around his neck like a cape. _This was the fabled 'mentally unstable boyfriend of Molly who threatened hospital staff with his Hexic...whatever they called his fighting style. He matched their description to a T, with his messy brown hair and gargantuan eyeglasses_. _How did he see ANYTHING through those swirled lenses?_

"We had no idea you were here, Melvin! Honest!" Sailor Mini Moon pleaded. Melvin ignored her - _just like the Sailor Scouts had ignored me when I said I didn't know what was going on, either -_ when he noticed Sailor Saturn hovering ever-ominously over me.

"Release my future comrade-in-arms at once, you world-conquering psychopath!" Melvin pointed a threatening finger Saturn's way. A transparently impatient Saturn replied by slowly drooping her eyes...before pulling them off me completely to address Melvin...

"Please go back to sleep, Melvin! Try to remember the Shadows are the ones who kidnapped and brainwashed you in the first place!" _Was Sailor Saturn right? Were the Shadows - were WE the ones responsible for most of the inpatients here?_

 _That question would have to wait...I faced a more pressing quandary._ Feeling had returned to my fingers and toes, and my breathing was now under control...at least, it was enough for me to make a run for it. _I had to choose whether to move now or take my chances. Sailor Saturn may have been young, but her reflexes and fighting prowess seemed on par with any trained Shadow...she'd run me through in an instant. I never wanted to hurt a kid, but Melvin alone wouldn't give me the opening I needed to get away from both Sailor Scouts..._

 _Both Sailor Scouts were focused on Melvin. I won't get another chance like this. Just...remember Alyssa's training..._

I fell to my hands to support myself and kicked Sailor Saturn's right leg, just below her knee. She yelped and swung herself back my way, thrusting forward with her weapon. Her flicker of confusion when she saw I was no longer where she aimed was enough...I flipped over Saturn's shoulder and threw her into the wall face-first as hard as I could. Then I pulled her back towards me and with one hand pressing against her chest, I shoved her backwards into the opposite wall.

"AAHH!" Saturn briefly grunted when she slammed against the surface much harder than I intended to push her. Although her fingers clasped her staff for dear life, she slumped to the ground in a daze.

"Sailor Saturn!" Sailor Mini Moon waved her fist my way. "YOU FAKER!"

"I wasn't..." My voice had fallen into a whisper while I shook my head...though I felt nothing I said would convince the pink-haired Scout I was justified. "She didn't give me much choice..."

"Have no fear, Shadow Babester!" _EWWW! Did this Melvin guy seriously just call me 'babester'?!_ He launched in a swan dive towards Sailor Mini Moon just as she went for her wand. "Your humble servant will cover your escape! AAAIIIIEEEE!"

"I'm sorry!" I shouted Mini Moon's way, for what little an apology was worth at this point. One twitch from Sailor Saturn as she lay against the wall, still in a daze, sent me down the hallway in a mad sprint. _Just get far far away from this hospital, make sure I'm not being tailed, then back to Doctor Tomoe's lab. Alyssa: if you're not still here, you had better be there and you had BETTER apologize!_

* * *

"WWWAAAAHHH!" I was punished for not looking ahead by the forehead of a screaming blonde rounding the corner in a mad sprint herself. Teleporting away didn't come to mind fast enough, and we collided into each other with enough force to knock her onto the sofa on the opposite side of the waiting room. I ended up knocking over a water dispenser in a failed attempt to prop myself up, and face-planted into the floor anyway. _Of all the things that stopped me..._

"OWWEEE!" The living roadblock whined even though SHE had the softer landing. It's when she swept one stray blonde pigtail from her face that I realized I'd done far worse than merely humiliated. _Her face...she looked like an adult version of Sailor Mini Moon. Right down to the white feather clips nestled in her hair, the red medallions on her dual hair buns, the tiara...and the Sailor Scout uniform she also wearing._ I saw her reading my uniform the same way, her oceanic eyes dilating when they fell upon the hood that obscured my face. She clumsily scrambled into a standing position at the same time I did, a meager few inches shorter than I was taking our heels into account.

She firmly planted one hand on her hip and stared me down: "I mean, I meant to do that! Stop where you are, in the name of the Moon!"

"You don't need to introduce yourself." I plastered on the bravest face I could, matching her stare. "Everyone knows which Sailor Scout you are!"

"Well, I'd be rude not to, so you're getting it anyway!" _Well, so far their self-aggrandizing introductions were every bit as annoying as the Shadows said they were._ The prima donna Scout raised one gloved arm towards the ceiling and pulled it straight down, posing with one arm extended and the other folded across her chest. "I am Sailor Moon! Sworn to fight for a peaceful future – "

"You seriously believe what you're saying, when you have pee-wee preteens terrorizing grownups with weapons?!" I screeched.

"AND a world where manners haven't gone completely extinct!" Sailor Moon haughtily finished her speech. "Besides, why would you be scared of a flamingo-headed shrimp whose most vicious attack is raiding your candy stash?"

"SUPER MOON TARGET!" Sailor Mini Moon's voice preceded a rainbow blast accompanied by bright shard-shaped bursts of energy streaking through the hallway. I side-rolled to the other side of the waiting room, leaving Sailor Moon in the line of fire.

"WWWAAAAHHHH!" Sailor Moon fumbled out of the way less gracefully, leaving Mini Moon's attack to strike the wall behind her. "OK, I forgot she had that one!"

From the opposite hallway leading out of meeting room, a figure's glove-bound hands clamped over my mouth and dragged me backwards while Sailor Moon was still distracted by her own predicament. I panicked for a second before Alyssa's training kicked in. I pulled my attacker's arms down to protect my airway, then rolled my arm forward to elbow them in the ribs...

"COOL IT! IT'S ME!" Alyssa hissed into my ear. _At least I was safely behind a corner, out of the Sailor Scouts' view._ She redirected my bitter stare towards the meeting room, watching Sailor Mini Moon storm out of the hallway to face her boss.

"And Luna rags on ME to practice more!" fumed the lead Scout. _It was a miracle that Melvin was still the only inpatient up and about with the ruckus they were causing. Maybe Sailor Saturn was still tangling with him back where we were, as hard as it would be to believe she'd have more trouble dealing with HIM._

"It's YOUR fault for standing directly across from a Shadow!" Sailor Mini Moon ragged on her look-alike as if they were sisters... _she didn't show much restraint around her "boss" at all._

"Speaking of which - where'd she go?" Sailor Moon and Mini Moon's heads darted about the room in a near-comical manner, failing to notice Alyssa and I watching from the other side of that very same room. A certain glasses-bearing weirdo barreled through the other hallway...  
 _  
_"Well, well, well...at least Schemer Moon has found the gall to attempt vengeance herself!" taunted Melvin. _Well, there's one thing Melvin was as good as any Shadow at...coming up with nicknames for the Sailor Scouts._

"What's he rambling about?" Sailor Moon asked Mini Moon.

"He thinks he beat up Tuxedo Mask last time," Sailor Mini Moon answered with a deep sigh.

Sailor Moon shook her head. "That smack to his head was worse than we thought. You and I were friends, Melvin - "

"Ha, I was friends with SAILOR MOON?!" Melvin flicked his hand dismissively. "Shadow training has rendered me completely immune to your disingenuous attempts at manipulating me! I shall be the one who takes the head clean off the snake! Then I will toss the rest of your pitiful Scouts aside as they flail helplessly about - "

Melvin's arms flailed aimlessly to the side before he collapsed face-first to the hospital floor, following a loud *thunk* to the back of his head. Sailor Saturn was left standing awkwardly behind him, with the blunt end of her polearm weapon directed where his head used to be.

"I should have done that first thing," Sailor Saturn admitted. "I doubt the hospital has a large-enough refrigerator we could place him in. He needs some more cooling off."

"Hey, so you know where the others are?" Sailor Mini Moon turned to Sailor Moon while we heard Saturn drag Melvin off... _I didn't want to think about why she suggested a refrigerator._ "I know you went looking for them!"

"AWWW!" Alyssa whispered into my ear. "Tithon left you your very own masked stalker! All he has left is to start throwing flowers!"  
 _  
_"Ugh..." _after bumping into the Three Lights, another suitor was the LAST thing I wanted to think about!_ But that was my cue to get back to business. "Mind telling me where the heck YOU were?! AND explain why we didn't high-tail it out of here yet?"

I caught trace references of Sailor Moon getting Mini Moon up to speed on what happened...apparently Sailor Moon was present for the other Scouts' battle against Alyssa...but Alyssa drew my full attention when she raised a blood-stained hand my way. Whatever vestige of anger I carried towards her melted as she admitted: "you were right this time, Steph. I didn't get far with the Kinmokuan, and we won't with the Sailor Scouts on our tail. We're gonna have to portal it back to the lab. But even at my best, those require a lot of energy..."

"Can I loan you my powers, or something?" I asked. Alyssa shook her head: _of course that wasn't how it worked._

Alyssa nudged me to follow her away from Sailor Moon and Mini Moon's meeting, towards a room at the middle of our hallway. I found the Kinmokuan haphazardly stuffed in a closet inside - _at least he was partially hidden if the Sailor Scouts rolled through -_ but there was no veiling the golfball-sized rift pulsating beside the heater. _Much like the sleeper hold, I knew that one "tap to the brain stem" couldn't have kept the Kinmokuan down for more than a couple minutes._

"They covered up all the windows. They're serious about keeping this guy, even if it means depressing everyone else in here," Alyssa sighed _._

"I think she's long gone..." Alyssa pressed me against the side of the wall when we heard Mini Moon's voice drawing close. Two pairs of footsteps - Sailor Moon and Mini Moon - thumped towards us. _They were looking for me_."Besides, without Charon - "

"Sailor Scouts never surrender, remember?" chanted Sailor Moon. Alyssa rolled her eyes and bobbed her head, mocking Sailor Moon by mimicking her lines to herself. But Alyssa and I jumped at the noise of a familiar voice yelling for everyone further down to 'clear out'. _Someone else was bulldozing their way through the psyche ward..._

"Lyssa..." I whispered. "I think the Starlights were already here."

"Figures," complained Alyssa. _She may have decided against staying put if I'd told her they were here earlier. Not much chance of bolting for it now._ "Well, if we're stuck here, we might overhear them say something useful for a change."

The massive doors leading back into the hospital were thrown open. _Sure sounded like the Starlights, feeling they had to make some grandiose entrance._ We heard the footsteps of our solar system's Scouts rush to meet them. When we heard them pass our room, Alyssa and I were able to creek the door open. _Of course...they would stop in the middle of the hall_. Sure enough, over the Moon Kingdom Scouts' shoulders, there was our least favorite half-clothed trio...

Even I couldn't miss the dilated eyes and gaping mouth of Sailor Star Fighter. "Sailor Moon..."

"Of course it is..." Sailor Moon answered the Starlight as if she were under hypnotic suggestion. "You're back..."

"We would have been earlier if Pluto didn't hold us up!" Star Healer cut into what otherwise might have been a tender - _as tender as I'd expect from the Sailor Scouts -_ reunion. _Wasn't hard to match him with the least charming of the Three Lights._

"Did she accompany you?" asked Sailor Saturn. _Looks like Alyssa and I were doing some old-fashioned snooping._

"We couldn't get away from her fast enough," snarled Star Fighter. _Definitely some animosity between the Starlights and Ms. Sourpuss. No surprise there._ Alyssa shut our door when Star Maker and Star Healer nudged aside Sailor Moon, dashing back the way that I came. Alyssa creaked the door open again when they were clear. Star Fighter was left with the three Sailor Scouts in the hallway. "We're here on business. The small fries' intro can wait til later."

"SMALL FRIES?!" Mini Moon repeated.  
 _  
_"You and I met before!" Sailor Saturn huffed. "When Galaxia attacked Earth, remember?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, sure! Now I recognize you!" Sailor Star Fighter brushed her off with a fib even I could make out clear as day, followed with a loud 'hmmmppphhh' from Sailor Mini Moon.

"HE'S NOT IN HIS ROOM!" Sailor Star Maker yelled in the direction I came from. _They had realized the room was empty._  
 _  
_"Wait...we ran into someone earlier," Sailor Saturn piped up. "His outfit was out-of-place: worn but ornate."

"That Shadow must have come here for HIM!" cried Mini Moon. "And to think I actually believed her for a sec!"

 _As much as I hated to hear that..._ "Lyssa, they won't budge and your wormhole's about the size of a bowling ball. We should find another way out."

"Even if we could just carry him through the lobby without anyone batting an eyelash, I'm not gonna make the walk back," admitted Alyssa. "And even if the windows weren't barred and impact-proof, we still have to worry about the drop."

"You'd think we'd have a rope or something!" I complained. The scrunched-up face of doom Alyssa gave me made me regret saying that out loud.

"Genius, Steph! Only an honors student could have thought of THAT!" Alyssa snarled back at me before resuming her matter-of-factly voice.

"But you didn't chase him all the way here just for that, did you?" Sailor Moon's voic _e,_ calling out to the Starlights, reeled our attention right back in. _At least now, we might overhear SOMETHING useful.  
_

"He was one among those spreading lies about us!" Star Fighter answered indignantly. "Claiming our Princess selfishly abandoned our world, then we abandoned our people just for her!"

"We know that's not true," comforted Sailor Moon... _though did she really believe that herself? That's one area the Sailor Scouts struck me as unapologetic: protecting their Princess no matter the cost.  
_

"Still, they just asked to vote," added Sailor Mini Moon. _Not an sentiment I'd expect from a future Princess, but one bound to be corrected when she was older._ "I mean, you'd want to know that people WANT you to be Queen, right Sailor Moon?"

"Vote on whether to 'permit' our Princess to return to her throne?!" Star Fighter's rage-filled voice retorted. "After all we sacrificed to bring her back?"

"This criminal is far worse than Star Fighter suggested!" Star Healer warned. "When Kinmoku rejected him in favor of restoring our Princess, he terrorized our planet just like Galaxia's Scouts did!"

"What do you mean?" asked Sailor Moon. Alyssa glared back at the closet where she had haphazardly tucked away the unconscious Kinmokuan.

"He threatened to steal the Star Seeds of everyone on our planet unless they brought him the Seed of our Princess! He wanted to recreate Sailor Galaxia's bracelets!" accused Sailor Star Maker.

"No doubt he's come here to raise an army of phages," finished Sailor Star Healer. "You may have defeated Chaos, Sailor Moon, but our fugitive is a threat to Earth as well."

"You know you can count on us for help," Sailor Moon assured them.

There was no hiding the ire in Alyssa's violet eyes when she faced mine. _What if the Starlights were right, and we really were sheltering a monster? Would Alyssa still want us to protect someone like THIS to save the rest of us from the Sailor Scouts?  
_

"We're still taking him back to Tomoe's lab," Alyssa answered my question before I even asked. "But we'll get to the bottom of who we're really dealing with before we go any further."

 _At least this hadn't been a complete waste of time._ I watched at Alyssa's sphere growing ever-more slowly. "At least we're getting somewhere..."

"Not fast enough." Alyssa took another peek out the door. "Our portal-of-inconvenience is STILL brewing, so we're gonna need to stall them. Soon as it's ready, you grab him and bail, you understand?."

"I'm not leaving you with them," I insisted. _Alyssa was wounded...she knew she couldn't last more than a few minutes before SIX Sailor Scouts cut her to ribbons. But I wasn't letting that happen, no matter how little training I had._ "You may have cut it close, but you still came back for me."

"Kinmokuan's the priority. That's an order." Alyssa snarled. "We have the advantage up close. They get confused, and their numbers won't help them in here..."

* * *

Alyssa waited for one of the Sailor Scouts to come upon the door. She swung it open and punched the approaching Scout in the stomach as if she were about to take down someone rounding the corner. I saw it was Star Maker who served as Alyssa's first target: caught off guard, she recoiled with Alyssa's strike. Instead of choking her out, Alyssa grabbed Star Maker's arm and flipped the Starlight over her shoulder, crashing Star Maker down on her back. I followed Alyssa out into the now-chaotic hallway, kicking Star Maker as she lay on the ground. Alyssa caught a number of Sailor Scouts in the hallway and Shadow-Charged through them as if they were a line of ducks, sending them flying back into the hallway.

"Star Gentle Uterus!" I teleported away before Star Maker unleashed a wave of blue round-shaped energy spheres flying in all directions. _Alyssa was right...Star Maker's blasts strayed closer towards the other Sailor Scouts._

"Watch your aim!" Sailor Moon shouted to Sailor Star Maker across the fray. "We're in a hospital!"

"We know, we know," sighed Sailor Star Maker. "Your pal gave us a mouthful despite the fact WE were ambushed in HER castle!"

"Who attacked who first?" Alyssa smart-mouthed.  
 _  
_"Wait..." Sailor Moon's mouth fell open after she narrowly dodged one of Alyssa's elbows. "Alyssa, is that you?!"

"ALYSSA?!" Sailor Mini Moon and Saturn repeated. _I guess our disguising magic didn't work so well after they figured out who we were._

"You don't want us to attack HER either, Sailor Moon?!" Sailor Star Healer complained, with only the Starlights continuing to battle me and Alyssa. But then even Star Fighter came to a pause.

"Hang on a sec!" Star Fighter demanded. "You're the EXACT same pair that ambushed us in Charon Castle, aren't you?!"

"Uhhh..." I pretended to innocently reach under my hood so that my arm covered my kitty patch. "Nope! Never heard of Charon Castle before! Not even sure who you are, in fact!"

"As if!" Sailor Mini Moon haughtily crossed her arms. "We know you don't care - "

Sailor Mini Moon fell silent, and her eyes shriveled back into dots, when the Starlights interrupted by snapping their fingers repeatedly. _Signaling the start of their routine..._

"We are the three shooting stars," introduced Sailor Star Healer.

"Illuminating the pitch black of night..." Sailor Star Fighter kept snapping her fingers quietly, continuing after a short pause: "and exposing the truth."

"Even from beneath those tacky sacks you wear on your heads!" Sailor Star Maker finished with a jeer directed towards the Shadows.

"Tacky, huh?" Alyssa mocked. "Mind telling us what animal chewed off the rest of your outfit?"

Sailor Star Maker narrowed her eyes Alyssa's way. "I'm Sailor Star Fighter!"

"Sailor Star Maker!"

"Sailor Star Healer!"

"We're the Sailor Starlights! It's showtime!"

 _Looks like Alyssa and I weren't the only ones who didn't care for it._ Sailor Mini Moon's arms remained crossed beneath her pouty face. "You said you were too busy for intros, but we stopped in the middle of a fight for THAT?!"

"What do you know?" Alyssa stared down at her wrist in disbelief. "Time to go!"

"Seriously?!" _I couldn't believe it myself_. "THAT ACTUALLY WORKED?!"

"PSST! The plan!" Alyssa reminded me. Bearing her teeth the Starlights' way, she hissed: "well, it was nice getting to know you!"

"Saturn Silent - " Before Sailor Saturn could imprison us in her barrier again, Alyssa tossed her dark magic windmill shuriken Saturn's way. Sailor Mini Moon shoved her friend out of the way. Alyssa teleported behind Sailor Saturn, but Star Fighter landed a spinning kick into Alyssa's ribs...another injury she could no longer bear. Despite Alyssa's order, I doubted she would break away in time on her own. _She'd sooner sacrifice herself...but that wasn't happening. Not only was she my friend...she may not have realized it, but the Kinmokuan wasn't our chance to save the Shadows. She was._

"My friend Pegasus!" Sailor Mini Moon bent down on one knee, with her hands clasped together as if in prayer, while Sailor Saturn rushed at Alyssa with her glaive. Alyssa sidestepped what might have been a finishing blow, but she took several pummels from the Starlights. _I got the sinking feeling that whatever Mini Moon was doing, it would be bad for us...but Alyssa was my concern._

Although Alyssa had only shown me once, I conjured a crystal monolith in mid-air and hurled it at Sailor Star Fighter, still ruthless in her determination to finish off Alyssa. Although smaller than I'd seen other Shadows create, the projectile struck Star Fighter in the back, giving Alyssa more breathing room as my target staggered in agony.

"I SAID GO!" Alyssa demanded, no doubt frustrated I'd stayed behind when I should have grabbed the Kinmokuan and escaped. I shuddered when I heard a bell tolling from Mini Moon's direction. _We were about to find out what she had been doing._

"Crystal Twinkle Bell!" she proclaimed as she lifted a golden bell with a pink heart-shaped handle above her head. A disorienting flash of light stopped me in my tracks. Straight from my dreams, a large white horse with white wings and a golden horn on his head appeared before me instantaneously. My wonder quickly shifted into dread as the hospital wing around him came back into focus. _This was no dream...the Sailor Scouts had summoned this thing, so it couldn't be good for us._ I scrambled to my feet as his golden horn started to glow...but sparkles dissipated from his horn, and he stared into my soul with somber orange eyes.

 _This unicorn...he WAS a spitting image of one I met from my dreams._ _I was only four, and I had not recalled that dream in years._ _Yet I could remember the wonder I felt when I soared over the clouds on his back. And he hadn't just let me ride him...he told me his name..._

"Pegasus!" Sailor Mini Moon calling his name _\- the same name as the one from my dreams -_ made my heart sink. "What's wrong _?_ We need your power!"

"Sailor Moon...Sailor Mini Moon..." Pegasus' mouth didn't move, but his voice echoed through my mind as if he was speaking by telepath. "Let her go."

"WHAT?!" Sailor Mini Moon's voice rang clear as her bell. "WHY?!"

"STEPH!" Alyssa had caught up to me, edging past the stunned pair of Sailor Scouts, and collapsed over my shoulder. _Never look a gift horse in the mouth, as my nana once said._ _Umm...maybe that wasn't the most relevant saying for THIS situation, but the point was he was letting us go._

"You've gotta be kidding!" Sailor Star Maker's cry of confusion pressed me to keep going. "We stopped to help YOU!"

"Just this once. Trust me." I could still hear Pegasus appeal to the other Sailor Scouts while I kicked the door to the Kinmokuan's room back open and leaned Alyssa against the wall.

"FORGET IT!" Sailor Star Healer shouted at the top of her lungs. Three pairs of rapidly-approaching footsteps warned me to move faster as I opened the closet and the Kinmokuan escapee landed over my shoulder. _They weren't listening to Pegasus..._

Alyssa created a dark blue sphere in one hand and extended her arm towards the doorway just when the pursuing Starlights barreled through. I saw the floor ahead of them briefly shimmer the same color. The moment they stepped over it, a particle field expanded and contracted, creating a kinetic explosion that sent the three of them flying backwards. While the other two flew back out into the hall, Star Healer landed directly across from the open doorway _..._

"They...THEY HAVE THE RUNAWAY!" Sailor Star Healer cried out, still sitting across from me. I bent down to carry Alyssa over my other shoulder, then dragged both of my companions towards her fully-developed singularity as quickly as my strength allowed. I looked back when I heard a star of light materializing in Star Healer's palm, but she wasn't pointing at me or Alyssa. _It was aimed at their fugitive_.

"Don't! Star Healer!" I heard Sailor Moon plea with her. I shoved Alyssa and the Survivor down the wormhole first. It pulsated and started to wane, signifying it was about to close. I looked back again, to see that Star Maker had adjusted her aim...

"Star Sensitive INFERNO!" The electrical discharge of Star Maker's attack raced in my direction even after I fell into the portal myself...

* * *

Star Maker's electrical discharge - the only source of light, where we were now - surged over my head and crashed into the wall over my head _. Pitch black...we made it back to the dark maze leading into Tomoe's lab_. Breathing heavily - again - I looked for any sign that any other attack or any of the Sailor Scouts had followed us through. _No sign of them. We were in the clear. For now._  
 _  
_"Are you alright?" I crawled over to Alyssa _._ She lay coughing on the ground, clutching the flank where Star Fighter's heel had collided with her ribs, but she still refused help. _Assuming Alyssa would still talk to me, we had a lot to catch up on...like trying to convince Alyssa that the Starlights doubled as a gender-swapping boy band here on Earth, or how Pegasus may have just outed me to the Sailor Scouts. I wasn't looking forward to either discussion._  
 _  
_"You don't need to worry about me." Alyssa brushed me off. _She didn't need to go any further to tell me she was pissed._ "Stephanie...we're not the Sailor Scouts, but I'm still your superior. So when I tell you to do something, it's not a suggestion!"

"And who's going to finish my training if you get yourself killed?" I belted. "Who will lead in your place? Certainly not me!"

"That's not your concern." Alyssa grunted. "We got him out, and we know why the Starlights were after him. But we're stuck with each other for the time being. We just barely made it out of there, thanks to a see-through talking horse. Or did I lose too much blood?"

Alyssa was badly beat up, but she waved me off and insisted on standing on her own two feet. _She was joking about the blood loss. At least she wasn't THAT mad at me...if she was, she would have called me 'Svetlana'. There was one other thing on my mind though:_ "Alyssa...you noticed that Sailor Moon seemed pretty determined to avoid damaging the hospital? I don't think she even wanted to hurt you."

Ignoring her latest injuries, Alyssa dragged the Kinmokuan upwards so he was leaning against the wall before she answered: "She's not Queen of Earth yet. She still has her namby-pamby, goodie-two-shoes reputation to maintain."

"You think that was it, though?" I asked. _Not a question I'd ask the other Shadows so freely._ "She was barely in control of the Sailor Scouts that whole time."

"Yeah, well, it didn't stop her from attacking me." Alyssa retorted. _She may have been more willing to indulge in my questions than the others, but there was no mistaking whose side she was on._ "The Sailor Scouts want the old Moon Kingdom back, warts and all. As long as they wan that, we're enemies. Understood?"

I nodded without another word. Alyssa bent down on one knee in front of the one we had gone to so much trouble to rescue. _All that, for a possible mass torture-murderer._ "Now, we need to decide what we'll do with him..."

 **To Be Continued**

* * *

 **A/N:** After a month's hiatus, I'm back. Weekends are usually the best time for me to sit down and write: Netflix took up one week, shoveling out from over two feet of snow took last weekend, and I've had no dice with the job search so I've been redoubling my efforts. Thank you to those of you who checked in on me!

I have my doubts about this chapter, and I really hope your notes and feedback can help me put them to rest. Here's how I think it went as the author: painting Sailor Mini Moon and Saturn as the "villains" through Stephanie's eyes last time was extremely fun, and the last chapter of Scourge was my favorite one to write. But I went into this chapter fearing it wasn't going to meet the high bar I set for myself with the last one. I really stressed out over how to move forward: it's a careful balancing act between keeping the main plot forward in a way that makes sense, and stopping to check in with our characters. I'm not sure it all came together as well as I hoped. But there were moments I was happy with: the intro, Sailor Mini Moon's awkward questions, and how the Starlights' penchant for grand speeches caused them to lose this one :P (Though knowing them, they're bound to put all the blame on Guardian and Sailor Pluto for stalling them). I put a lot of time into writing this, and I just hope it shows.

I know most of you hate cliffhangers - I hate them myself, but narrative sometimes demands it :P I thought that ending it just before Alyssa starts questioning the Survivor, instead of after Stephanie escaped with Star Healer's attack trailing her, would be a softer landing. I had about 2000 words, including the scene where Alyssa questions the Kinmokuan Survivor, written after this one but I decided to save the scenes for later. It still needs another layer of polish - I've already kept you guys waiting a month - and I think I can take the ending further, hint at the earlier-than-planned return of a certain pair some of you have asked me about before ;)  
 **  
(2/6/2016 Note):** I went back and made some revisions, mostly focused on the second half of the chapter. I cut some lines I felt dragged the scene along too much, especially with Alyssa and Stephanie waiting for their "portal of convenience" (as Lisseas put it!) to warp in. The biggest change came with Pegasus' appearance, which I felt came across a little too clunky the first time. I hope this one flows better, whether you're reading for the first time or checking it out again.

Hoping to resume the continuation this weekend - I mentioned I had 2000 words written already. I want to take the ending further, then the polishing can start. See you soon!


	8. Plead Insanity

**Chapter 8: Plead Insanity**

 _Stephanie_

"Wait…we're not, interrogating him, are we?" I asked nervously. _After what I had just been through, the last thing I wanted to see was Alyssa holding the edges of her windmill shuriken to an already unstable humanoid's throat._

"For all we know, we just bailed out the Kinmokuan Jack the Ripper! Would you just drag him into Tomoe's lab, after I got myself incinerated, electrocuted, and frozen to lure the Scouts away from here?" Alyssa vented before her eyes fell upon my face. "Right…the little brats held you up a long time and Saturn has one wicked blade."

"I know we need to find out who we're dealing with…" I conceded.

"You don't have to stay and watch if this will make you uncomfortable," Alyssa offered. "Look, just because we don't dress up in prissy little skirts - besides you - it doesn't mean we enjoy every single thing we do. But instead of Monday Night Quarterbacking and hold everybody else to different rules, we recognize there isn't always a better option."

"What about Mini Moon and Saturn?" I asked.

Alyssa exhaled deeply and looked off to the side. "Maybe some of them just don't know better. That doesn't make them any less dangerous. Believe me, last thing I want to do is set our guest off, especially on the off-chance the Starlights made the whole thing up on the spot. But he's not what he seems. That I'm sure about."

After a moment's hesitation, I answered: "I'll stay." _God forbid I'd need the example one day..._

Alyssa snapped her fingers, lighting a spark of dark magic that crackled from her fingertips. The Kinmokuan shifted his head, stirred by Alyssa's magic trick. I crossed my own fingers for her… _no doubt this wasn't Alyssa's first rodeo, but were the stakes ever this high before?_

The groggy Kinmokuan rubbed the back of his neck, right around the area Alyssa had shown me her 'tap to the brain stem.' "Dark, as the cosmos...except devoid of even the stars' light," the Kinmokuan remarked. _For the first time since I met him, he sounded normal. Though knowing what questions Alyssa had in store for him, it was bound not to last._

"Funny you should mention that." Alyssa typed away on her wrist device before pulling out another sonar imprint from beneath her robes. "You're lucky you slept on the ride over here. We ran into your old pals. They said you were here for a very different reason than the one you gave us..."

The holographic images of the Starlights and Sailor Moon flickered in mid-air above Alyssa's device. I watched the Kinmokuan flinch upon viewing the Starlights' faces over Sailor Moon's shoulder, with her back turned to him. He pressed up against the wall even further and whimpered more loudly as the scene from the hospital repeated itself. Whatever vestige of sanity he briefly possessed steadily trickled away:

"He threatened to steal the Star Seeds of everyone on our planet unless they brought him the Seed of our Princess! He wanted to recreate Sailor Galaxia's bracelets!"

"No doubt he's come here to raise an army of phages. You may have defeated Chaos, Sailor Moon, but our fugitive is a threat to Earth as well."

"You may want to pay extra attention to this last part," Alyssa warned before resuming the recording.

 _"You know you can count on us for help,"_ Sailor Moon's image repeated her vow to aid the Starlights before Alyssa cut off the holographic reenactment.

"She doesn't believe me..." The Kinmokuan began panting as rapidly as I did back at the hospital, his worn robes fluttering about as he paced. "If she doesn't believe me, there is no hope for any of us!"

Alyssa shoved the Kinmokuan back down on the ground. "Right now, you need ME to believe you. But I won't stick my neck out for a psychopath no matter how badly the Sailor Scouts want you!" she threatened.

"Our Princess...she-she-she said she would honor the vote!" The Kinmokuan curled up in a ball and started raving. "The others, they-they-they, some of them voted the other way because they thought she'd retaliate but she did anyway! And now they're everywhere, the Sailor Scouts, there's no getting away from them! THEY JUST KEEP HOUNDING ME!"

"Lyssa," I prodded her gently. "I know you're the expert, just...I don't see him telling us anything coherent in the state he's in."

Alyssa saw through my attempts to raise my doubts as diplomatically as I could. "We don't give up that easily, Steph. We have other ways to find out what we need. I hoped you would be...further along before you saw this, but you had to learn eventually. I don't have any other angle: even Tithon's cell gleaned next to nothing on Kinmoku itself."

 _My mind doted back over my lessons in my head. When all other means of extracting information failed, Shadows could reach into someone's mind and pull it out themselves. It sounded like an unpleasant process, not to mention the worst possible violation of privacy. It was a last resort. Reading about what we could do as Shadows was one thing...the prospect of actually seeing it though, made me want to take Alyssa up on her offer and step away._ "Just as Queen Beryl's people did when they were facing the Sailor Scouts."

"Not just Beryl. She only wanted power. That's why it's important for us to be honest with ourselves about what we can do. It's what makes us different from the Scouts." Alyssa addressed my question before she extended her arm towards the Kinmokuan rocking side-to-side, trying to get him to look at her face. She began by assuring him: "I won't hurt you. Look into my eyes, and tell me what really happened on your planet. SHOW me."

The Kinmokuan's pale eyes reflected the violet glow of Alyssa's. His irises dilated as if he were a deer caught in the spotlight, opening his mind to Alyssa probing his memories for what his bout of insanity withheld from us. But my heart skipped a beat when his irises instantaneously contracted, and Alyssa fell backwards reeling.

"LYSSA!" I called to her when she recoiled on the ground herself, clutching her head as if something had struck her. The Kinmokuan backed away from her with his arms in the air: _the universal signal of surrender._

"I-I-I, I didn't mean to do that," he whimpered. "I didn't even know I could!"

"What just happened?" I asked Alyssa, though I kept my eyes fixed on the Kinmokuan. _A lesson I'd taken from Sailor Saturn._

With her eyes still shuddered, Alyssa shook her head in disbelief. "He completely rejected my hypnotic suggestion. His mind didn't just push me out...it completely collapsed around my own. Anyone with less experience would have lost their sanity. I've seen others resist mind control, but never like that..."

"Maybe it's some kind of defense mechanism. Maybe he's...just that far gone," I suggested with a wary eye on him as I said those last words. _He'd been so adamant that he had preserved his sanity from the Sailor Animamates, that I feared reinforcing he'd lost it would set him off. But he was too wrapped up in whatever he had done to Alyssa to pay much attention if he had heard me._

"That kind of defense isn't natural, Steph." Alyssa's face scrunched up in thinly-veiled anger as she bitterly yanked the still-cowering Survivor up from the ground. "You told me your galactic search for power that could rival the Sailor Scouts didn't bear any fruit. You lied to me. Now why should I believe you don't have a planet-killer power after all?!"

"Planet-killer...th-that's what the Sailor Animamates were. The-they say the Sailor Scouts were supposed to protect us, from all these malevolent forces in the dark corners of the universe th-that could destroy the universe b-but I only remember Sailor Scouts destroying our world. And there's more here! SO MANY!" The Kinmokuan burst out into cackling, unsettling laughter.

"Lyssa, this guy's about to become unhinged whether the Starlights were right or not," I whispered in Alyssa's ear. _I was staying because I was scared FOR her._ "And either way, I'm not sure I want to be here when he does."

"No, Steph. He's unraveling," Alyssa insisted. "He's got it together enough to tell us what we want to know. The key to getting him to talk is reminding him we're in control. Sailor Moon and the Starlights aren't here. Then we've got to pick out the facts from in between his ranting."

Alyssa unveiled a pair of golden bracelets from under her robes. One had a large green gem at its center; the other a purple one. _Those were the bracelets Alyssa told me about earlier...the ones she said Galaxia used to control her servants, the Sailor Animamates._ Alyssa shoved the bracelets in the Kinmokuan's face. "You recognize these, I'll bet?"

The Kinmokuan wailed and raised his trembling hands over his increasingly pale face at the sight of them. _The Sailor Animamates were the ones who tortured him before, I believed him on that much...seeing them again amounted to a second torture session going by his reactions._

"If you'd rather not tell me what kind of power you've got under the hood, I could slap these bracelets around your wrists and take you for a test drive!" Alyssa threatened. _She was pushing him to the brink._

"YOU CAN'T!" the Kinmokuan shrieked at the top of his lungs... _er, assuming Kinmokuan anatomy was the same as ours_. "YOU CAN'T PUT THOSE CUFFS ON ME!"

Alyssa retracted the purple gem bracelet from his face, but left it to hover over her right arm as if she intended to put it on. "Not yet. If memory serves, I would have to remove your Star Seed first..."

"STOP! STOP STOP STOP!" The Kinmokuan extended his arm outward. "YOU DON'T REALIZE WHAT YOU WOULD BE DOING! WILLINGLY TURNING YOURSELF INTO A MINDLESS PAWN OF GALAXIA...IT'S INSANE!"

"YET YOU'RE ASKING ME TO TAKE A SIMILAR CHANCE WITH YOU!" Alyssa snapped back. "You say you left Kinmoku with the Starlights tailing you, fine! THEN WHAT?"

"I sought the Galaxy Cauldron, the birthplace of stars!" His voice shuddered... _enough to tell me he wasn't recounting his story willingly, but he was pulling whatever trace vestiges of his sanity he had left. Just long enough to tell us._ "But nothing, no powers manifested, despite my best efforts! At least, I didn't think so until now! I didn't find some hooded figure to offer it to me either, like they said there was! The Sailor Scouts, th-they have all the power now! But I-I-I, I'm not the bad guy! Kakyuu...she said those loved ones we found lost would be waiting for us at home and we could just go back! Just pretend it never happened...ha! THAT'S the definition of insanity!"

Alyssa had to speak over his continuing diatribe: "So, you don't know what you came out with. Fine...we'll get to the bottom of it and if your story checks out, we'll drop you somewhere the Starlights will never find you. Until then..."

Alyssa backed away from him and extended her arm to launch a dark magic sleep dart at him. It dispersed in front of his face and covered his mouth in a fog of dark blue smoke, leaving him flat on the floor two seconds later. Alyssa prodded me after I watched him face-plant yet again. "See? Don't give up prematurely, Steph."

"I'm not sure I would have preferred that to holding a blade to his throat." I'd meant to sound impartial, but I felt my voice rise as I spoke.

"Yeah but there's one crucial difference between my way and Saturn's...mine actually worked." Alyssa gloated, though she dropped it in the face of my stare. _For all the misconceptions the Sailor Scouts seemed to have about us, I did know I would be treading on thin ice with any other Shadow._ "Look, first of all: the Scouts caught you in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe we'll get lucky and he's just the Kinmokuan MacGuffin who doesn't even glow in the dark, but he could be much worse. Second: those pipsqueaks weren't bluffing."

"Those bracelets are duds?" I asked. _I should have guessed._

"No, they're the real deal alright." Alyssa juggled one of the golden cuffs in the air. "But with Chaos dispersed and Galaxia out of the picture, these are just paperweights." Alyssa suddenly gasped and reached for her side, allowing the juggled cuff to land on the floor with a clank.

"We need to get you inside." This time, Alyssa didn't refuse to let me steady her.

"You remember the way through?" Alyssa asked. I had to reach back down to pick up the Kinmokuan too. _I was going to be so sore in the morning._

"Yeah," I answered. _I think..._

* * *

"Three times," Alyssa sighed as I still lugged her around on one shoulder. "You passed right by Tomoe's door three times! Instead you kept going and wandered in circles for at least eight minutes!"

"You could have said something!" I pouted.

"Yeah, but how else would you learn?" Alyssa sighed in resignation. We willed our Shadow robes away, just as Alyssa had instructed me to do earlier. "I always have to brace myself when I open that door. You can never guess what Tomoe will be in the middle of."

"You did ask him not to start anything weird before we got back..." I was left to eat my words again when we found Doctor Tomoe had tied his lab table to the roof with four cables and set up meager guard rails to prevent the contents lying on it from spilling out. Like a bleak crib, he rocked the entire table back and forth. Tomoe's boombox was at it again, playing nursery music this time. _And he sang along with it..._

"Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop...  
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock...  
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall...  
And down will come baby, cradle and all...AHAHAHAHAHA!"

"...And you thought ASKING would have stopped him?!" Alyssa groaned my way. "Doc, I asked you - "

"And I've already gotten started!" Tomoe proclaimed excitedly and darted off to the side. Doctor Tomoe abruptly reached out to steady his makeshift crib, shuffling the articles on top into a more stable position, and hunched over rows of beakers filled with pink fluid peeking through the gaps. _The monsters that Alyssa had requested...he'd started working on them._ "I've been thinking back to why my daimon pods failed at their task before. I suspect that Germatoid's inadequate nurturing played a role. SO! I want to make sure that my beauties are raised properly this time, with love and affection! They say that playing music for an unborn child stimulates brain activity!"

 _As if this wouldn't traumatize them._ "You seemed reluctant about this before," I reminded him. "Like, these monsters - or daimon pods. They're alive just like we are, right?"

"The original samples came from an alien Doom Tree," Alyssa answered briskly. _No doubt she wasn't thrilled about me asking questions here...the alternative was risking other Shadows against the Scouts._ "They're alive in the sense that an apple or carrot is alive, right Doctor?"

"A crude analogy, but an accurate one," Tomoe replied.

"If you don't mind me asking..." I directed my question Alyssa's way, even as it was meant for Doctor Tomoe. "What changed your mind?"

Doctor Tomoe's giddiness over his creations faded when he looked at me. "First Alyssa returns wounded. Now she's in worse shape than before, and you have a remarkable bruise on your forehead!"

I instinctively reached up where I had collided into Sailor Moon earlier that night. _HER forehead wasn't swollen...figures._ "Oh, this? I just, er, fell - "

"You don't want to tell me who or what has been hounding you because you don't want me to worry. Fine," Doctor Tomoe sighed. "But I've lost enough people close to me already. Hotaru, my assistants, my peers, even my daughter's friends. I can't depend on the Sailor Scouts. Whoever is attacking you...they have to be stopped, and THIS is the best way I can help."

 _He wanted to protect us. He didn't know that the ones who vowed to destroy us were the Sailor Scouts themselves...or he was hiding his suspicions well if the thought had crossed his mind. I still wasn't sure he'd be so enthusiastic if he knew they were our enemies, even with his memories scattered and his obviously complicated history with them. But he had our backs._

"Since this is my lab though, I feel I'm entitled to having one of my questions answered," conjectured Doctor Tomoe as his eyes darted to the side of the lab I'd laid down the unconscious visitor on my shoulder. "Who's our raggedly-dressed guest?"

 _His eyes were fixed on the Kinmokuan's attire._ "He's...the visitor you helped us track earlier," Alyssa answered. She lifted herself off from me, though Tomoe and I inched towards her when she wobbled on her feet.

"A humanoid..." Tomoe raised a finger to his chin. "Fascinating.

"He...hasn't exactly been forthcoming." Alyssa admitted. "For his own safety, I need to ask if you could run a battery of physiological tests on him, examine his clothing for unique elements or energy signatures."

"You want me to run tests on him? What do I look like, a mad scientist?" Doctor Tomoe followed my eyes back to the brewing fluids behind him. "Err, point taken. I'll help on one condition: I'd feel safer if both of you spent the night here. You can help break in my cot, I've hardly used it."

"You have been sleeping though, right Doc?" asked Alyssa with slight apprehension. _If he hadn't been, it would go a long way towards explaining his behavior._

Tomoe looked away without answering. "If you have trouble falling asleep, I have a sedative prepared. I've just...lacked the means of testing it."

"Our visitor was agitated when we found him. Why not try it on him instead? Good night's sleep might be just what he needs," Alyssa bluntly proposed.

"Right," I snickered under my breath again. "Better to keep him asleep, or else he might hit it off with Doctor Tomoe and they'll get married!"

"You! Zip it!" Alyssa stumbled back on to my shoulder so she could hiss into my ear and elbow me. _I really needed to keep these lines to myself..._

* * *

I dropped Alyssa onto the bare-bones cot in the room Doctor Tomoe had pointed out. _While no expense had been spared with Tomoe's lab, his personal space was little more than a cupboard._ Finally, with my back straining to keep Alyssa on my back just a little longer, I dropped Alyssa down on Tomoe's paper-thin bed.

"Ooommpphh!" _Alyssa was tough, but even she wrinkled her nose in displeasure_. "And I thought Tomoe was doing me a favor going low-maintenance with his accomodations!"

Alyssa removed the gauntlet concealed beneath her sleeve and lay it inconspicuously behind Tomoe's dresser before lying flat on her back. My eyes drifted to the corner of a single white envelope pressed between the slightly ajar drawer. I pulled the drawer open enough to remove the envelope...the ink on the mailing address had faded, but I could still make out the letter 'H'. Peeking through the drawer, I found there was a whole stack of his letters...

"I appreciate you showing initiative, Steph. But you don't need to snoop on Tomoe," Alyssa teased, though her voice sagged with uncharacteristic dreariness. _Even cell leaders needed sleep._

"Just, err, cleaning up after him!" I laughed it off, even as I tucked the envelope behind the waistband of my skirt. _Yeah right, as if Alyssa wouldn't notice that._ _Could try getting her on a different topic before she fell asleep..._ "Say, Alyssa: how will we verify the Starlights' version of events? I don't even know where their planet is."

"Tithon didn't consider the Starlights a pressing concern, if you can believe it. The rest of us went bananas...that's when the other Shadows started murmuring that maybe Tithon was losing it." Alyssa's eyes drifted back towards the ceiling and answered in a slower talking voice than usual. "You know why we don't carry grapple hooks around? His cell whined that we were copying their kusari-gamas. They didn't want the rest of us using them, because they were special."

"You're kidding..." I sighed. _No wonder the Sailor Scouts gained the upper hand...I'd bet they never had to deal with this level of petty infighting._

Alyssa yawned loudly. "Your question, though...it's been four years since the Starlights went back. The Kinmokuan could have been wandering that long, for all we know. We don't have that kind of time to retrace his steps."

"And now we know we can't rely on your portals. Wait...what if we had one of those Space-Time Keys the Scouts use to visit?" I suggested.

Alyssa cast me a tired smile. "I don't know if they've used it the way you're suggesting, but it's a decent idea. My team managed to scrounge up one of Tithon's internal reports before they got spaced: Amethyst went rogue, and took the Shadows' last key with her. And she was our expert on all their trinkets."

I answered only with another loud sigh.

"Yup," agreed Alyssa. "After a thousand years, Sailor Pluto's two brain cells rubbed together and she realized wearing keys around her waist was a bad idea. But our regular visitor from Crystal Tokyo might have one."

"You mean..." _Not the pink-haired girl!_ "You really believe that she just drops by from a thousand years in the future to say hi and make trouble for us? What if...the Spymaster made a mistake and she doesn't have a key at all?"

"He wouldn't make that kind of mistake." Alyssa tilted her head and cast me a smug look. "Still worried you'll have to beat up a munchkin? Or scared to go to bed fearing she'll crop up in your nightmares?"

"Wait, you don't think I'm - SCARED of her?!" _Why did I feel the sudden urge to burst out in a fit of nervous laughter?_

"OK...I can understand Saturn with that scythe of hers. If you're scared of the girly-girl in all pink, don't tell anyone I trained you?" Alyssa mocked, though she retracted when I drooped. "I'm kidding! Look, we just need to snatch her key, it's not like we're throwing her in the trunk of our car! Of course, we need to...keep the Sailor Scouts' preoccupied while we figure out how to use it too. I won't...risk tracking our mates down...til we have what they need."

 _Alyssa was finally on the verge of falling asleep._ Alyssa turned on her side following her latest round of yawning. "Ask Tomoe...when his pods...will..."

No more than ten seconds after her pause, Alyssa snored to herself. I tiptoed towards the drawer and retrieved the remaining stack of letters from Tomoe's drawers. _Heavily faded also, but similar handwriting. They had to be meant for his daughter. Hotaru..._

* * *

Leaving Alyssa to her nap, I walked in on Doctor Tomoe after he pulled himself away from his experiments. He was in the corner, dragging the Kinmokuan onto a stretcher and tying straps around his wrists _. If Alyssa wasn't so concerned about Tomoe's lack of a social life, I'd worry he had other "patients" tucked away in an attic somewhere. There were other reasons I could think of why he'd keep restraining equipment handy, but I didn't want to delve any further into how else Doctor Tomoe preoccupied himself in between Alyssa's visits._

"Can't sleep because of that bruise on your forehead, Stephanie?" Doctor Tomoe's illuminated spectacle-covered eyes darted my way. "If it's throbbing, perhaps another one of my shots will -"

"Oh, no! NO NO NO! I'll just cover it over with some makeup!" I frantically waved my arms in the air to ward him off. "Er, Alyssa's sleeping though. I think she wanted to ask when your...uh, project, will be finished."

Tomoe turned back to one of the pods simmering in its tube over a burner. _At least he was through rocking them._ "The sample Alyssa recovered was in better shape than we could have hoped, though I still had to fill in the DNA gaps with less-than-optimal substitutes. I'll start on a proper batch once this group has been fully incubated, but the first pods should be ready and rearin' after just a few days." _Alyssa would be pleased to hear that._

"I did want to ask you one other thing," I continued after a second's indecision just when the swaying crib pulled Tomoe's attention away. I removed the last stray envelope from my skirt's waistband and combined it with the others. "I found a whole stack of letters in your dresser. The ink's faded. I...thought you might have forgotten about them."

Doctor Tomoe's face reemerged from behind the shade that concealed his face as well as any Shadow hood. A somber smile grew over his face as he gently clutched the stack of letters in my hand. "Kaorinite...my former assistant...told me she walked in on Hotaru writing letters to an athlete she fancied. Kaorinite admitted she teased my shy little girl for never mailing them. I wonder whether Hotaru picked up that quirk from me...or if it's my way of remembering her. Heh...seems so antiquated now. Perhaps it's time I got into writing more emails."

"That time came and went maybe twenty-five years ago," I blurted out before remembering Alyssa would have slapped me if she was there. "I mean - you could always try texting!"

"Texting?! Oh no, I shudder to think about what letters my daughter wrote her idol, given her age group's aversion to writing out full words and complete sentences! "Yo Shawn! Smiley face, l-o-l-w-t-q-r-e, wink symbol! Heart shape, Hotaru Tomoe!" Doctor Tomoe exhaled deeply. "First, I'd need to find someone who could interpret all my letters!"

"But that's not the only reason..." I muttered. Doctor Tomoe's head was writhing with discomfort when he shifted it away from me. "Keeping unsent letters isn't as weird as you think. I did something awful to someone I cared about too, and I was too scared to apologize...I didn't think I deserved his forgiveness. My mom said I should invite him to my bat mitzvah...because then I'd know if he came, and I could move on if he didn't. I walked up to his door with the invitation in my hand...and I just couldn't drop it off. Now, all I can think about is how things might have turned out differently. I don't...want to see you holding on to the same regrets."

"The woman who came for my daughter..." Doctor Tomoe clutched the bars of his 'crib' and wallowed. "I felt as if I'd seen her face in a dream that I'd long forgotten. 'It is time'...that was all she said. Hotaru smiled and extended her arms...she trusted her, so I thought I should too. Later, as my memories started piecing themselves together, it only became more confusing. I saw my daughter as a teenager...I saw myself ready to sacrifice her to appease a horrible monster intent on swallowing our entire world. I thought...Hotaru might be better off without me. At least until I had my head screwed on right. I...barely even remember her voice anymore."

"If you're scared...maybe I could find her," I offered. "I can give her your letters, and if she's old enough, I'll ask if she wants to see you."

Doctor Tomoe released his grip on the bars ahead and faced me. _His 'eyes' were even wider than before_. "You would check in on her for me?"

"I would give anything to have my mom back if I could," I admitted to him. "My dad too, even if I never met him. I'm sure Hotaru misses her parents too."  
 _  
_Doctor Tomoe skipped over to his computer. "It's been a long time since I've gotten an update, but Hotaru's guardian did call me two years ago to let me know she was well. I traced one of the calls to THIS address...though that's no guarantee she's still there."

 _Two years?! Better than never, but still!_ I hid my cynical reply from him, instead pasting on a smile as I copied the address written on his screen. _THREE names on the lease...one of them 'Michelle'._ "You've got nothing to lose! Think about if she IS there!"

Doctor Tomoe spun his chair around so fast he almost flew off it himself. "Wait, would Alyssa be alright with you going back out there on my behalf? I don't want to get you in trouble, and I don't want you getting hurt again!"

"I'll be careful, Doc! I'll check out the address first thing tomorrow and come straight back, promise!" _OK, odds were Alyssa would NOT be OK with me going out into unfamiliar territory after several close calls with the Sailor Scouts. But seeing the condition she was in, I had a large enough window to pop in and out before she found out._ _I didn't want to stay cooped up in here at any rate._

Doctor Tomoe jumped from his chair, planted a hand on each of my shoulders, and yanked me towards him until my face was touching his chest, although my heels were still in my original spot. "Err...it's been a long time since I've touched anyone," Tomoe awkwardly admitted.

"Relax, it's the least I could do!" I assured him. _Oh well, I wasn't planning on getting much sleep tonight anyway..._

* * *

Barely over five hours after I lay down to sleep, I arose from the floor with a stiff back. Alyssa still showed no signs of awakening, stiff as a board when I finished washing my hair in the bathroom. _Another rudimentary backroom, in contrast to his no-expense-spared laboratory_. The rummaging noise in the back suggested Doctor Tomoe had pulled away from his still-brewing vials only to plan out his latest round of antics. Instead of wasting time to say goodbye, I tucked his letters away and creaked open the door as quietly as I could...  
 _  
At least I had an easier time finding my way OUT of his labyrinth_. The frigid winter air in the early hours of the morning left the snow-blanketed city desolate, with even the sun reluctant to peek over the horizon. It was just as well: I didn't have as much time for sightseeing as I would have liked. Tomoe's address led me to a quiet suburb, an anomaly against the bustling city of Tokyo that Alyssa had led me to anticipate. I felt as if I had stepped inside a snow globe: a small but welcoming home of brick beside white panels stood before a winter wonderland. _If Hotaru had spent the last four years here, she was lucky..._

Despite the home's warm appearance luring me forward, with large vertical windows daring me to peek inside, I found my feet growing heavier with each step. _And not because of the snow._ I stood there, nervously fingering one of Tomoe's envelopes, and started pacing in circles around the doorstep. _I don't think Logan, or most people I knew, would have pegged me as someone who was shy. Ending up alone was a fear that overshadowed all the others. But left to my own devices, the side that I so often repressed crept back from time to time._

 _Come on, think of Tomoe. Think how pissed Alyssa would be if she wakes up to find you left her alone with him. Ring the buzzer, find out if Hotaru's there, then leave._

That one thought was enough to hold me still and lift my finger to the buzzer, but others paralyzed me again just short of pressing the button. _I could see the disappointment in Tomoe's eyes when I returned with all his letters in hand, bearing the sorrowful news that the trail had gone cold again. Or I could picture a grumpy old hag answering the door complaining I disrespected her culture, or just plain bothered her waking her up in the early hours of the morning. Or I could picture the Sailor Scouts answering the door, challenging me for discovering their secret hideaway, before they finished me off to assure its location would remain secret forever..._

I almost tripped backwards off the porch when a woman with skin as light as the fallen snow opened the front door. Her wavy teal hair rippled in breeze, with the corner of her mouth curling in amusement at the sight of me. "I have to say, this is the earliest anyone has delivered our mail!"

I was left there staring with a gaping mouth, as if I had never seen another woman before. I was starstruck: my earlier encounter with the Three Lights served to jumpstart my memory as to whose house I had just stumbled upon...

"You're not just Michelle, you're THE Michelle!" I blubbered. _Well, THAT super-awkward intro wouldn't have surprised anyone who knew me._ "I mean, you're the violinist who played with the Three Lights at the international festival! You were amazing! And just between us, I thought you sounded WAY better!"

Michelle gave a delicate laugh, covering her mouth with one hand and shuttering her eyes as she did. "Oh, I wouldn't put myself on the same level! I'm surprised you remember that. I haven't played live in at least two years!"

"How come?" I asked.

Michelle shifted her eyes away, trying to maintain her smile even as her amusement steadily melted away. "I became very busy..."

"We both did!" Another woman's voice grew steadily closer. _Almost as if she were slurring_. "Put our dreams on hold while our pals chased theirs. But then we got ourselves kicked out and now they hate us. So it was all for nothing."

 _She didn't mean the Three Lights...I remembered Seiya already told me that Michelle was never a part of their band._

"Please," Michelle pleaded. "Excuse my - "

"SHHH!" Another woman with short-cut, sandy-blonde hair peeked through the doorway, pressing a finger to Michelle's lips before casting me the lopsided grin of a drunk. "Don't mind me, babbling my life story to a complete stranger. Like something Serena would do!"

Michelle shook her head. "Serena is our friend. Well...she was. And you just met, Amara, my - "

"Can we continue inside, before your fan catches hypothermia?" The sandy-haired blonde interrupted again. "That would be rude, like when we stood on the table with our shoes on! Remember?"

I grabbed my bicep with my spare hand to suppress my shivering. "It's OK..."

"No, Amara's right. We can find you a coat, at least!" Michelle agreed. _I was woefully under-dressed for this sort of weather._ "Please, come inside. Excuse the appearance of our place."

"It's not really ours," Amara murmured as she stepped aside to let me pass by. "We gave up our apartment too."

"This place is amazing!" I exclaimed. _The neatly-aligned decor matched the beauty of the house outside. I couldn't see what Michelle was so worried about...but then I noticed scuff marks that marred the pale green walls, as if a fight had taken place here before. Hopefully not between Amara and Michelle...more likely it had been an inebriated Amara stumbling about, though several scuffs had to have been caused by someone bigger than either of them being thrown about._ Ahead of the counter sat an orange couch, with yellow and blue cushions tossed aside. The wooden table between the couch and a TV was buried under assorted bottles of varying shapes - _but I was sure they once contained the same beverage -_ and emptied food takeout boxes.

"It's been a while since we had guests, especially someone so polite!" The sight of Michelle beaming drew me away from the rest of the place. "Can we offer you anything?"

"Gotcha covered, Michelle!" Amara pressed a recently-used glass, accompanied by a half-filled white bottle, up to my face.

Michelle narrowed her eyes at her dulled roommate. "I was thinking tea or cookies. Not...that."

"Uh, thanks." I gently pushed Amara's hand aside. "But isn't it a little early for a drink?"

"She's right, Amara," chastised Michelle. "Between last night and yesterday afternoon, I wasn't expecting you up until dinner!"

"I don't mean to impose," I apologized, "but I didn't mean to keep you so long!"

"No, we're delighted to have you!" Michelle glowed again. _Why would nobody else come to visit her?_ "You brought so many letters, and I haven't even asked for your name yet!"

"I'm Stephanie..." I felt a twinge of guilt, staring down at Tomoe's envelopes. "I would have written you a letter if I knew you were here, Michelle. But these are for someone else, from somebody else."

"Aww," Michelle teased. "Can I ask who?"

"What makes you think they're not for me? I'm popular too!" joked Amara.

"Do either of you know someone named Hotaru Tomoe?" I felt the temperature in the house drop to match the cold outdoors. "These...are from her dad."

Amara stared eerily at me before she answered. "We knew Hotaru. She won't be back in our lifetimes though."

"She will be," Michelle assured her. "Stephanie, why don't you have a seat? I'll call and find out if she wants to collect them."

Amara snatched Michelle's cellphone from her hand and set it on the crowded table. "No matter which one of them you call, they'll hang up the instant they hear either of our voices."

"You don't know that," snapped Michelle. "Besides, this is about Hotaru's father."

"Which is why we're better off staying out of it. We're not her guardians anymore, Michelle." Michelle winced as if Amara had run her through with a spear with those words, before Amara returned to me. "We know where you can find her. This weather wouldn't stop her from visiting the park."

"I'm not familiar with this city..." I admitted.

"Fine. I'll leave Trista a message to let her know Stephanie is coming." Michelle grabbed her phone back and also looked to face me. "Please excuse us. We're only abrasive because someone else came looking for Hotaru recently. But we know you have nothing to do with them."

"I don't want to stir up trouble," I said. "Maybe I should just leave her guardian a message. Or just leave..."

"No, this is what Hotaru wants." Michelle insisted and took off towards the closet. "Amara was right about one other thing! I'll find you a spare coat..."

 **To Be Continued**

* * *

 **A/N:** Not much for me to say on this one. I hope you enjoyed the check-in with Amara and Michelle, we haven't seen them in a while! In case you need a refresher: Sailor Moon took Uranus and Neptune's transformation rods, then expelled them from the Sailor Scouts for their near-betrayal of Hotaru and Charon in SoSM. Amara and Michelle came across near-villainous in SoSM, but I remember that they could be very nice outside of Sailor Scout business. Needless to say, this meeting would have gone very differently if they had met Stephanie in formal attire. But they're not Sailor Scouts anymore. Think this is the last we'll see of Amara and Michelle?

I struggled a little with Doctor Tomoe's lines - surprise for me, since I've had so much fun writing him! So I hope you enjoyed his parts. Poor Doctor Tomoe and Hotaru...you may see the irony in him being duped into creating monsters to battle the Sailor Scouts...including his own daughter, as he actively seeks to redeem himself in her eyes. Of course, Alyssa and Stephanie aren't aware of the relation, so they don't see the conflict of interest yet. How will they react when they do find out?

Don't fret, Logan fans: we're touching base with him and the Sailor Scouts next! The Kinmokuan (Survivor) has been more of a teaser lately, but make no mistake: his role will expand the further we go! Hope you enjoyed my latest, see you soon!


	9. No Place Beside the Stars

**Chapter 9: No Place Beside the Stars**

 _Logan_

I didn't realize I had fallen asleep, not until my heavy eyelids finally drifted open to my hazy surroundings. _Someone was carrying me in their arms,_ I realized with my fingers scraping the ground as my own arms dangled alongside. I tried to swivel my neck to see who it was, but the rest of my body just wouldn't move.

"HALT!" A threatening voice ahead commanded. _His voice was quivering though...he concealed his terror with a show of bravado_. Slowly, two heavily-armored soldiers standing guard in front of a flight of stairs, came into focus. They were dressed as silver knights brandishing spears. _From my experience, soldiers were more dangerous when they were terrified...they could lash out at anyone they perceived as even a remote threat. But I'd seen their armor and weapons before...not so long ago..._

"Lower your weapon!" The other guard reached for his subordinate's spear to press the sharpened tip away from us. "I recognize the one in the robes! Notify the Sailor Scout on duty and escort them to the ball room!"

"During the nightly celebration, sir? With everything that's going on, are you sure?" questioned his subordinate. My lips barely cracked open and not a single sound exited my parched lips.  
 _  
_"She told me to expect him herself..." the lead guard replied, but his voice trailed off as if he were speaking from far away. I felt my eyelids become heavy once again, shuttering over my eyes despite my best attempt not to return to sleep...

Again, they reopened to blurred figures steadily coming into focus. This time, there was a small - thankfully unarmed - crowd dressed in black tuxedos, white dress shirts, and elaborate gowns gathering around us. I felt the same pair of soft arms cradling me. Some of the bystanders wore masks, just like Darien when he took on the persona of Tuxedo Mask. Most of the Silver Millennium nobles wore similar ones to their nightly balls, maybe that was where he got the inspiration. _Wait...this entire scene looked JUST like Silver Millennium! How could I have wound up here from -_  
 _  
_"Make way for Princess Serenity!" Sailor Venus' voice commanding voice declared from the group behind her. _Princess Serenity? I really was..._

A pair of white gloves reached across two noble pairs of shoulders and gently tugged them aside so she could pass through...but Sailor Venus' calm composure gave way to tears when her ocean-blue eyes fell upon me again, still in the arms of another. _Sailor Venus...there was no star on her choker, and she appeared on the cusp of her teenage years. Just like the first time I met her, at the frozen lake in front of the Moon Palace._ Still choking on her tears, Sailor Venus fell to her knees as if she were in the Queen's presence. Without a single word, she held tightly to my arm and cried into my shoulder.

Tuxedo Mask had followed close behind her. His appearance hadn't changed: he wore the same black tailcoat with the red-lined cape, and the white mask to conceal his face...but he pulled his mask away with a pair of gloved fingers, staring at me with disbelief. "Charon, I...I thought Earth was lost. But here you are - you're back!"  
 _  
_And then, clearing away the last thin traces of doubt I had over this strange turn of events, Serena herself joined her Prince. She wore the elegant white gown with the golden trim that she wore as Princess Serenity. And her eyes watered at the sight of me too. "I almost gave up hope," she sobbed even with an entire crowd watching on. "I thought we would never see each other again!"  
 _  
_This time, when my lips finally did open, a quiet whisper followed. "But...we didn't. At least...not in this lifetime."

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! UNDER ATTACK!" A familiar black cat with the lunar crescent on her forehead dashed into the ball room with her white feline companion right beside her.

"GET READY FOR BATTLE!" Artemis' frantic voice called the panicking nobles to arms. "We need everyone we can get to fight!"

"This was the final battle for the Moon Kingdom," I whispered. "I didn't live to see it..."

"Queen Serenity did you a favor, Charon!" A shiver pierced my spine at the familiar screeching voice taunting me. Finally, my neck was my own again to look up to the one who brought me here... _even now, everyone in the Moon Palace was oblivious to her existence._ My eyes followed her arms wrapped in the familiar, deceptively-soft fabric of her long black dress, past rebellious strands of pink hair branching off from the long pigtails she shared with Sailor Moon. Then I was face-to-face with Rini's out-of-time alter ego...

"She stabbed you in the back before your friends could, so you could keep on fantasising what might have been! Come Crystal Tokyo, these fantasies of your will just be extra salt in the wound!" Wicked Lady shrieked. "AHAHAHAHA!"

* * *

"WOAH! EASY THERE PARTNER!" My eyes flew open in an instant this time, greeted by the far more welcome - if not terrified - emerald eyes of Sailor Jupiter. Her gloved arms were stretched outwards over my prone form... _SHE had been the one carrying me._ I had already strained my back from the last fall, catching Serena the Red Ninja after she jumped out the window. _THAT'S where I was before...cornering Alyssa with the Inner Scouts before she collapsed an entire street down on us so she could escape. I remembered asking Sailor Moon to run back to the Temple and warn the others while we were still buried under rubble...hopefully she made it back on her own OK._ My latest fall on the hard pavement left it aching again...

"You dropped him?!" Sailor Venus' form appeared overhead to chastise Jupiter. I breathed a sigh of relief to see the golden stars on both of their chokers, with their longer back ribbons fluttering in the cold breeze. _It was just a nightmare...Wicked Lady was just a nightmare...as often as I wondered how different things might have been if I had been present for that final battle that spelled the doom of the Moon Kingdom. And so many others..._

"I didn't!" Sailor Jupiter appealed. "He just started screaming and fell out of my arms!" In the meantime, I felt two other pairs of arms - Mercury and Mars - help pull me up from the ground. I noticed a tear in Sailor Venus' back ribbon: all four of them shared scrapes and tears on their sleeves in similar places, and their leotards were still blotted with dust. _It was such a time-saver our uniforms always reappeared in pristine condition when we transformed...imagine the time we'd spend having to stitch them back together._

The sun was only now starting to rise over the horizon as if it had wanted to stay in bead. Against a dimly-lit sky contrasting the sun's dull red glow, I leaned my head back and saw we were underneath the Torii gate that greeted visitors to Raye's shrine. "You carried me back all the way here?"

Sailor Jupiter finally broke the mood with a slight grin. "It was more of a workout than I was expecting. Luna was right: either age is catching up or we really slacked off!" Jupiter's flicker of warmth dissipated when she saw nobody else's mood had lightened.

"You don't even remember passing out while you and I were digging the others out, do you?" Sailor Mercury asked me with inquisitively concerned eyes. "I asked you to take it easy."

"I'm the one who put you up to this." Sailor Venus rubbed her face with her gloved hands. _Her words were directed towards me, but she was truly speaking to herself._ "Amy warned us you needed time to heal! But the first thing I asked you to do after you woke up was to help us find Alyssa!"

"Look on the bright side," I tried reassuring her. "I don't have to worry about going home in the meantime!"

Not a single muscle in Venus' face loosened _._ "Goes to show how stupid I am, knowing I almost sent you after her ON YOUR OWN!"

"You're not stupid, Mina!" I retorted instantly. "I'm here because I want to be! I know how to look after myself!"

Sailor Venus pressed herself close enough for me to smell traces of the mandarin orange fragrance she had worn before she transformed. She planted her hand over the stitches Amy had bandaged over the best she could and pressed gently. Venus watched my lips tighten, betraying my best effort to hide lingering traces of pain from the wound Tithon inflicted. "How many more times? Every time we encounter the Shadows, they come closer and closer to taking you from us again! Nothing terrifies me more than the thought that the next time we lose you, even the Silver Crystal won't be able to bring you back."

"We're not going to let that happen." Sailor Mercury planted a hand on Venus' shoulder and pulled her back slightly. "Sailor Moon pulled through for us, we have no reason to doubt she'd let Charon down."

"You're being optimistic, Amy. We shouldn't keep testing fate," cautioned Sailor Mars. Her own eyes were uncharacteristically soft when she looked to me. "I know you want to keep helping, Charon. I respect that, I do, but it's irresponsible of us to keep throwing you in harm's way like this."

"Do I get any say in the matter?" Those words just stumbled out of my mouth, and I immediately wished I could take them back when everyone looked away. "I didn't mean to say it like that..."

"All we're saying is that we've gotta keep our eyes open for another way," Sailor Jupiter returned my apology. "You're our ace in the hole. We've fought other Shadows without you before and they just kept getting back up, even after we gave it everything we had. If there isn't another way to beat them, maybe we can find a way to increase our power. They're resistant to our powers, not invincible."

"Logan has a point though, we should count our blessings," sighed Sailor Mars. "We know that Alyssa's skulking around Tokyo. Now we need to find out what might be of interest to her at the Mugen School zone. We must have overlooked something last time."

"OR maybe she's hanging around there because she knows we'll focus on the school," suggested Sailor Mercury. "We need to keep our eyes open for other points of interest."

Sailor Mars breathed a sigh of relief behind us, turning her eyes upon the shrine that she cared for alongside her aging grandfather. "The shrine has seen better days, but the Shadows haven't burned it down in our absence. We have that to be grateful for. I'll feel better once we're inside though."

"Mars is right." Sailor Venus crossed her arms over her chest and began shivering. "I almost forgot how cold it was..."

* * *

While there was no sign of intruders, we remained hunched in battle-ready position as Sailor Mars threw the door open. The room where Darien and I had stayed before Tithon's attacks was clear. The miscellaneous items we had left behind remained undisturbed, and we still had a pair of sleeping bags lying on the floor. Darien's had been unzipped, but that was likely because he had slept there while tending to Raye's grandfather.

"Looks normal enough." Sailor Mars exhaled deeply.

Sailor Jupiter, however, growled through her teeth after fiddling with the knob on the side of her wrist communicator. "I hope Trista and the others haven't been trying to get in touch with us. Stupid communicators, the Shadows always manage to keep one step ahead!"

"We'll find a work-around, we always do," assured Sailor Mercury.

Sailor Venus took my arm and lead me into the middle of the bedroom. "Why don't the rest of you check out the Temple grounds? I'll keep watch here while Logan rests, we'll just be a holler away."

Sailor Mars didn't look the least bit appreciative of Venus' offer. She planted one hand firmly on her hip and extended the other with her fingers stretched towards Mina. "Fork over your cellphone, first!"

Sailor Venus crossed her arms and turned her back on the others to pout. "Why do you guys keep frying the same bucket of spilled milk?! Wait, no, that's crying over the same...ANYWAY, first it was my scheduling mishap with Hawk's Eye and Tiger's Eye! Then it was the time I said I wanted to be a cat! Now I can't even take a video with my own boyfriend without you getting worked up about it!"

"Aww," I smiled, "what was that about you wishing you were a cat?"

All of the Sailor Scouts' faces grew bright red, and Sailor Venus reached for her nose. Sailor Mercury's head furtively darted around the room. "Raye's temple isn't going to search itself, you know!"

After Sailor Mercury yanked the wood and paper door open a lot faster than she normally did, Sailor Jupiter also backed out of the room. "Yeah, didn't you wanna check up on your Grandpa and Darien, Raye? Let's do that right now!"

Sailor Mars remained ominously in our doorway, fixing her stare at Venus. "No funny business while we're gone!"

"Yes, mom!" Venus groaned while the fiery Sailor Scout closed the door on us. _I hoped Raye didn't think Mina and I were...well, we hadn't yet, at any rate, and I was wary of Mina asking._ _Because I had never...you know...besides,_ _Mina and I had still only been on that one date, and it was with Serena and Darien. AND it was a disaster, with everyone spying on us._

Rini...had THAT been the moment the spectre of Wicked Lady started twinkling in her eye again?

"Well, well..." Venus faked an appalled face when she lifted out stack of Sailor V comics she had not-so-subtly tried to get in my hands our first night. "I know what they say about meeting someone in the flesh living up to expectations...actually, I'm not sure if there's a quote, but you just left these here?! I worried you might run into a burning building to save them!"

"Well, the way Sailor V is these days, I'd worry about her airlifting me to the hospital if I got so much as a papercut!" I joked...but I couldn't get the look on my face to match with my girlfriend's inquisitive eyes piercing mine. _My mind was still on that dream I had earlier._

Sailor Venus planted the stack of comics back on the dresser. "What's the matter, Logan? Do you need me to get Amy?"

 _I hadn't told her all that happened in Charon Castle yet._ "No, I just - " I halted my breathing and pressed Venus against the lightly-colored walls at the shaded silhouette passing by the shōji door. _Good thing we hadn't de-transformed yet._

"That isn't one of us," Sailor Venus whispered in my ear. "Then again, it doesn't look like a Shadow either."

I shoved Venus out of the way just as the thin wall behind us splintered and another pair of hands reached through to grab me. I reared my head back to break with my attacker's nose, then spun around to deliver a dark magically-charged karate chop to their neck. Just before it made contact, my bracer shone white-hot and propelled me backwards with a massive burst of magic. _The defensive reaction I had learned to expect when attacking someone who mimicked Sailor Scout magic._ Although my attack failed to connect, I found the intruder lying atop the fragmented wall clutching her nose. She was certainly not dressed like any Sailor Scout I had ever seen before, wearing a black bikini-like top that was revealing even by Sailor standards with long black gloves. Her long black ponytail swooshed from side-to-side.

A similarly-dressed intruder, this one a brunette, thrust the door open, and raised a five-pointed red gem stone in front of her chest. "Star Gentle - "  
 _  
_"Taiki, stop!" Sailor Venus threw herself between us. A third white-haired Scout appeared behind the one who tried to attack me, her emerald eyes casting Venus a bitter stare. _If they were Sailor Scouts, they must have been taken aback with Venus using their civilian names around a supposed enemy._ "It's OK, Star Healer," Venus assured her. "He knows us."

"That's what we told the Starlights earlier!" Hotaru's voice rang out behind them. _So this was the infamous trio...the Sailor Scouts had filled me in on most of the past, but the Starlights remained a touchy subject for them. From what they did tell me, the Starlights were supposed to be very powerful. And depending on who was talking, the Starlights were also the greatest thing to land on Earth's soil since manna fell from heaven._

Sailor Star Healer and her compatriot stepped aside so that I could see Hotaru's snow-covered form, alongside Rini and Serena. _I was relieved to see she'd made it back..._ but Hotaru's angry violet eyes were fixated on the newcomers. "You attacked him anyway!"

Rini's eyes - devoid of any trace of Wicked Lady's darkness - fell upon the third mystery Scout pulling herself up from the splinters of Raye's wall. "Raye's gonna flip out when she sees this!"

"Taiki?! Yaten?!" _That was Raye's voice alright...but she didn't sound the least bit angry. In fact, it had risen a few octaves, as if she had just inhaled a helium balloon._ Sailor Mars charged into the room all smiles, as if the stars in her eyes blinded her to the damage. "Seiya too! You're all here!"

"I didn't think you'd come back so soon!" _Sailor Mercury was no less thrilled to see them._ "I kept my platinum membership card!"

"Let's stick to our Sailor names in front of HIM," Sailor Star Healer sighed. _I knew she was referring to me, not that it was surprising._ Star Healer pointed out the other two. "Sailor Star Fighter and Sailor Star Maker."

"Uh...are you gonna apologize for Raye's wall?" Rini directed her question towards Sailor Star Fighter.

"Accidents happen, Rini! One less thing to refurbish around here!" Sailor Mars glowed. Rini's face distorted instantaneously. _I'd seen Raye explode over far less..._

Sailor Star Maker pointed at Sailor Venus. "We thought he was pinning her in the wall. We didn't want to leave her hanging the entire fight again."

"How chivalrous, Taiki. But you still have permission to use my name." _I recognized when Mina was falsely honeying-up her voice._ Taiki knew her well enough two cringe at the sight of Mina's twitching eyebrow, followed by Mina's eardrum-puncturing scream that followed Yaten's attempt to whisper 'Venus' in Taiki's ear: "I WAS YOUR PERSONAL ASSISTANT! THE LEAST YOU COULD HAVE DONE WAS REMEMBER MY NAME!"

"See Rini, it was just a misunderstanding!" Sailor Jupiter winked at Rini once our ears had stopped ringing...although my pink haired friend responded by closing her eyes, tilting her face away, and exhaling loud for everyone to hear. Sailor Jupiter acted as if she hadn't noticed: "you three must be famished after traveling halfway across the galaxy! How about I whip you up a quick snack?"

"I've got it covered, Lita." A disgruntled-looking Darien trudged through the hallway in his pajamas. His eyes grazed past the other two Starlights before they locked in on Sailor Star Fighter. "It might be a little moldy after four years, but I've got a knuckle sandwich with Seiya's name on it stored away!"  
 _  
_"Darien, please don't be mad," Serena frantically crossed over to grab Darien's left bicep. Star Fighter's eyes were locked squarely away from the two of them. _The Starlights' names had come up before, though Serena and Mina had always skirted around the topic when they came up. Judging by the frigid air between Seiya and Darien, there was some tension over Serena lingering..._

Darien shook his head and extended his hand towards Star Fighter. "I'm just messin' with you. Things ended so abruptly for us last time. I never got the chance to fully thank you for EVERYTHING you've done for my Serena."

"Uh..." Sailor Star Fighter anxiously grabbed his hand. "Don't mention it."

"No, I really should." Darien's tone was as sweet as honey... _being lapped up by a grizzly bear on the verge of mauling you for interrupting its meal._ "Thanks for taking care of Serena while she was worrying about me. Some people I know might have accused you of being a homewrecker, ask me "why would a famous celebrity spend his very scarce free time with YOUR girlfriend when half of Tokyo is swooning over him?" But I know that the special softball training and overnight bodyguard detail in her house came only with the purest of intentions."

"What did you tell him about us?!" Star Fighter asked Serena. _World famous? ...OK, the others were still a little behind at filling me in on all their past adventures. Luna and Artemis felt the Sailor Scouts had become lax after Galaxia was defeated, and were driving them to increase their training regimen._

"Everything. He's my boyfriend." Serena poked Darien playfully. "Phew! You had me worried there for a second! I thought you were holding a grudge!"

Man, Serena was SSSSOOOO slow sometimes!

"Hold up! I'm confused about something!" Hotaru raised her arm to the ceiling as if we were in class. "If they're Sailor Scouts just like we are, how were they in a boy band at the same time?"

The room fell ominously quiet. All the Inner Scouts shifted beady eyes towards each other. _Hotaru had just rained on their "Starlights Welcome Back" parade. Actually, I was a bit confused about the same point Hotaru brought up. Were they just in disguise or was there some...um...gender-bending involved?_

"Excuse me?! Who told you we were in a BOY BAND?" Star Fighter fumed. "We're REAL artists!"  
 _  
_I caught Darien rolling his eyes their way. Hotaru's eyes darted between each one of us before shyly planting her hands in her pockets. _She had resigned_ _herself to the conclusion that she wasn't getting an answer._

"I don't fully trust Diana to look over my Grandpa for too long after Bigfoot herself slipped past her!" Sailor Mars pointed a finger at Serena and switched topics. "So: why come all this way?"

All three Starlights eyed me with suspicion... _about what I expected._ "Seiya, why don't you take Mr. Quiet outside?" suggested Sailor Star Healer.

"Why? You feel sick, Logan?" asked Sailor Jupiter. _She hadn't caught on yet._

"This is Sailor Scout business," Star Maker grumbled. "Friend of yours or not, it doesn't concern him."

Darien pushed his way through the room, just barely large enough to accommodate all of us. _At least we weren't all crowding around Serena and Rini's round table in our base_. "I'm not a Sailor Scout either."

Sailor Venus grabbed my bicep and tugged me beside her. "And if Serena's boyfriend can sit in on this meeting, so can mine!"

"It's bad enough your pals keep getting in our way! Now you're actually DATING one of those robed creeps?!" Sailor Star Healer smacked herself on the forehead. "You girls are even stupider than I remember!

Star Maker's eyes darted to the fist I had coiled in my hand. _I wanted Star Healer to know she'd have have a sandwich to bring home too if she kept treating my friends like garbage, bracer of not._

"Yaten, we talked about this. You should be more polite!"

"Thank you, Taiki!" Sailor Venus beamed.

"We should be respectful of their special needs friends!" Star Maker tacked on.

"That wasn't nice," Hotaru hissed at the Starlight. _I WANTED to give Star Maker the benefit of the doubt, accredit it to one of those lines lost in translation...  
_  
"Remember when Seiya and I were the only ones who trusted each other?" Serena emphatically reminded them. "Taiki and Yaten: you tried to keep us apart. My own friends did too. But we're stronger working together than we were alone!"

"Serena. That was a different case," Star Fighter pleaded. "We were all Sailor Scouts. We shared the same mission."

"Galaxia was a Sailor Scout too," Serena reminded them. "Taken over by Chaos, but still. We shouldn't be so quick to turn away help."

After a long pause, Star Fighter nodded in resignation. "I noticed your new friend hasn't said anything yet. Did the Shadows kick him out because he's a mute?"

"LOGAN ISN'T A MUTE!" Serena furrowed her eyebrows and raised a fist Seiya's way. "He just gets shy! And the Shadows didn't kick him out, he quit the instant they turned on us!"

 _That wasn't entirely true...I never left the Shadows. After Queen Serenity killed me, Tithon took over and steered the Shadows down a path I wouldn't have taken them...the Moon Kingdom had plenty of faults, but there was room for improvement. I knew Serena's heart was in the right place: she was standing up for me right now._

"Give him a break, Seiya!" Sailor Jupiter smiled. "Who wouldn't get a little tongue-tied meeting super-famous celebrities?"

I leaned into my girlfriend's ear and whispered: "Hotaru said they were in a band?"

"AHAHAHAHA!" Sailor Venus shattered my attempt at a private question by drawing every pair of eyeballs in the room towards when she erupted into her trademark nervous laughter. _That's what I get for trying to be subtle._ Venus paused for a massive breath: "Has anyone else mentioned how FUNNY Logan is?"

"Seriously..." All hopes at secrecy had been lost, but I still kept my voice at a barely-audible tone. "Who are they?"

Sailor Star Healer flipped her hair in a pretentious display. In unison, all three Starlights dropped their transformations with separate flashes of light. They twirled about and ended with a three-way, back-to-back pose. _They DID look like males,_ I had to admit, despite Seiya and Taiki retaining their long ponytails. Like a trio of big shots, The Three Lights simultaneously lowered their sunglasses.

"Recognize us now?" asked Seiya, her _\- errr, HIS now, I guess -_ sky blue eyes reflecting Serena and Darien's color save the highly-inflated sense of self threatening to burst from his irises.

"Uh..." My gray matter strained at light-speed to place them _. One black-haired, one brunette, and one white-haired egotistical trio with expensive business suits, roses in their front pockets, and the heads to match the price tag._ But I drew a complete blank. "Sorry...no."

Seiya, Yaten, and Taiki groaned in perfect unison, then flipped upside down with their backs to the floor and their feet comically lifted towards the ceiling. _Well, I could see their performance side was up to par._

"I don't want to live...on this planet anymore," Seiya whined from the ground. _Oh give me a break...how did they go from wanting to drag me out of Raye's temple to crying that I wasn't stroking their combined ego?_

Sailor Jupiter sped over to Rini and shoved the poor kid into my face at breakneck speed. "Logan, do you remember who SHE is?!" Jupiter asked in a panicking tone.

"Princess Serena Small Lady Tsukino of Crystal Tokyo," I answered snidely. _Were the civilian versions of the Starlights THAT famous?_

Serena pushed Rini aside and lifted three fingers in my face. "Logan, how many fingers do you see?"

"DOOFUS! WE'RE TESTING HIS MEMORY, NOT HIS EYESIGHT!" Raye followed up with a smack to the back of Serena's head, knocking her upside-down in the same awkward pose as Seiya.

"Calm down, everyone!" Amy appealed. "The Three Lights may have been a worldwide phenomenon, but I doubt they were on TV as much outside the country! He just hasn't placed your faces yet!"

"I'm sure you just need the right song to jog your memory!" After I shook my head, Mina wrapped her arm around me and began singing karaoke-style in an attempt to jog my memory: "If we could have met sooner, I would find all the reasons. The Moon shines on the endless shores, I want to take you there!"

 _Nope, tune wasn't familiar._ When she paused to question me with her shining eyes, I saw my blank stare reflected in them, so she switched to a different tune: "Uh...search for your love, the crystal of heaven! Search for your love! Please don't cry!"

I lightly tapped the arm that Sailor Venus had draped around me. "I...kinda stopped listening to music. For a little while."

Sailor Venus' own eyes glazed over before SHE joined the Starlights and Serena in the same inverted position with her twitching legs poking upwards.

"You really never heard of the Three Lights before you met us, Logan?" Rini asked me. "They were the biggest fad! At least that's what I heard: I left before they took off and they were ancient history when I came back."

"ANCIENT HISTORY?!" Taiki snarled from ground level.

"Hang on a sec." Seiya led the others in reverting to a proper standing position. "The ex-Shadow called you 'Princess Serena' before."

Rini answered Seiya with a cold stare. "I would have told you earlier if you had shown any interest." _Seiya wasn't expecting THAT kind of hostility from Rini, judging by the way he hunched his shoulders away from her when she spoke._

Sailor Mars proudly clasped her hands on Rini's petite shoulders. "That's her given name in the thirtieth century, but she's Rini to us! She's our frequent flyer from Crystal Tokyo, Sailor Moon's future daughter with the King of Earth if you can believe it!"

"SERENA'S future daughter?! HERE?!" Seiya's voice cracked in full-fledged panic.

"Chill out, Seiya," Darien fumed. "Her future daddy's not you."

"Darien's future royalty, as he so modestly put it." Raye face-palmed.

"You OK, Seiya?" Serena noticed a glum expression creep onto Seiya's once-proud exterior.  
 _  
_Seiya quickly plastered on a smile... _though his forced expressions didn't fool me_. "Sure. I'm happy for you dump - I mean, Serena! You and I just had a brief fling, if you could even call it that!"

"You mistook her for our Princess." Taiki spelled it out for Seiya rather bluntly.

"Now we all know something about each other," entreated Serena. "Can we please keep talking as a group?"

"We didn't come to Earth to mingle," Yaten snarled. "We're here on a mission of our own, and your friends have been mucking it up for us more than the Shadows have!"

"We met Alyssa at the hospital again." My heart sank as Serena filled the others in. "She had another Shadow with her."

I saw Rini and Hotaru hang their heads in unison. "We tried talking her out of working with them, but...we didn't exactly do a great job," admitted Rini.

"We got scared. We tried the god cop/bad cop method but...neither of us played the "good cop"," Hotaru shyly finished.

"I thought the good cop/bad cop stuff was only for the movies," Serena commented.

"And then your see-through magic horse let them escape with the criminal we were after!" Taiki shouted. "You put all of Kinmoku in danger!"

"And that was after Sailor Pluto held us up in Charon Castle! She gave the one we were after a head start!" Yaten continued at max volume.

"I'm sure Sailor Pluto and Pegasus had their reasons for what they did," Sailor Moon admitted. Yaten and Taiki turned away in disgust. _They weren't looking for an excuse. But Seiya_ _had removed himself from the conversation entirely, gluing his eyes to a corner of Raye's room._

"You should be more careful about the company you keep, Sailor Moon. Others will hold you responsible for their actions," Yaten threatened. _Another jab at me_.

"Especially if you're supposed to be the future Queen of this planet," warned Taiki. "You should think twice about treating your future subjects like they're your friends. They'll see it as a weakness...and they'll see YOU as someone they can take compassion of."

"I don't believe that," Serena pleaded. "People want to see compassion from their leaders."

"Serena..." Seiya continued staring out the paper window. "If you could only see the state our world was in when we returned...then you'd know that isn't true. We were looking forward to a fresh start. This...criminal...threatens to plunge Kinmoku into despair and darkness, just as Galaxia did." _I caught a subtle nod from Yaten in Seiya's direction._

"We can help each other," Sailor Venus stepped forward. "The Shadows may not be driven by Chaos, but they're just as ruthless and evil. They tortured our loved ones, they tried to imprison us, they'll do anything to turn Sailor Moon into another one of their pawns!"

Sailor Mars joined her side. "Sailor Venus is right. We're fighting the same enemy. If the Shadows are harboring such a dangerous enemy, we'll do everything we can to help you just as Sailor Moon promised!"

"Wait!" I mumbled quietly, drawing the girls' attention. "Aren't...we...going to ask for more?"

"Every single one of us can vouch for Charon. We never would have gotten this far if it wasn't for him!" Sailor Mercury assured the Starlights. _Not the point I was trying to make..._

I held my footing in light of the Starlights' gaze, taking some comfort in retaining my hood to conceal my face from them... _temporary as it was bound to be_. "I don't know..." mumbled Yaten. "I'm not sure he's fully committed. What's in it for him?"

"Who says there needs to be something 'in it for me'?" I snarled back at him.

"I won't lie: it's a large planet. A few extra pairs of eyes would help," admitted Taiki. "You know what he looks like, Sailor Moon. You want to help us, great. But you'd better get everyone on the same page first!"

"You mentioned Alyssa was among the Shadows who kidnapped your target?" Sailor Mercury asked. "We're still working out precisely what she's after, but my instinct is that she has a vested interest in remaining here for the time being. At the very least, we'll keep tracking her."

Yaten and Taiki looked towards Seiya... _but_ _not to render final judgment as their leader. Their eyes were uncertain, as if they were unsure what he was trying to say._

"Why don't we give you all a chance to mull it over on your own?" offered Seiya. "I'm meeting someone at Ichi-no-hashi Park around eleven o'clock. Why don't you drop by and we'll iron out the details then?"

"Seiya...you're not expecting that wavy-haired foreign girl we met in the lobby to show up?!" Yaten face-palmed yet again. _As long as it wasn't any of my friends._

Taiki covered his mouth to suppress a chortle. "I didn't think she could make her lack of interest in you any clearer, Seiya!"

"Come on, you're the one who said she was playing me hot and cold!" Seiya retorted. "She'll be there, you'll see! Later guys!" Seiya led the other two out into the hall. _At least Darien could relax a little more...but despite the girls' unwavering faith in them, I couldn't shake the fact there was something...off between Seiya and the other two Starlights that had nothing to do with his romantic life._

* * *

"I know those three can be a little abrasive when you first meet them," Sailor Mars assured me once the former Three Lights were out of earshot. "They just need a little time to get used to you, that's all."

"I wonder what sort of girl that would thumb her nose at Seiya," Sailor Jupiter mumbled.

"Hey Lita, I didn't realize you were...I mean it's totally OK if you're...I mean, I'm open-minded about you being...you know," I stammered.

Sailor Jupiter's eyes bulged out of her eye sockets. "Uh...no. I'm not following you, Logan."

"I just mean...if that's why you don't have a...you and Raye...it doesn't change anything." _Now everyone else was staring. True: I didn't talk to Lita and Raye as much as I did with Mina, Serena, Rini and Amy...but COME ON LOGAN! GET THE WORDS OUT!_

"Woah, Logan!" Sailor Mars raised her palms in front of herself as it I was speeding towards her in a truck. "You don't think Lita and I are - "

"ME AND HER?! NO WAY!" _Sailor_ _Jupiter had also caught on to what I was implying._ "That shipped sailed as soon as we found out the Three Lights were, you know? SAILOR SCOUTS? Besides, Raye's still in love with Chad, the guy who used to work here and had a super-huge crush on her!"

"You've got that all backwards!" Sailor Mars' face turned as red as her skirt. "I mean, maybe you haven't been around us long enough Logan, but you'll notice Lita has an ex-boyfriend story for every occasion!" _And THIS was why I didn't talk much..._

"I admit, I used to wonder about Serena." Sailor Mercury whispered in my ear. "Those two are unapologetically boy-crazy though."

"She said she was sorry." Rini quieted everyone with her quiet mumble. "The Shadow we cornered in the hospital. She apologized for attacking Hotaru."

"She did?" Hotaru asked with no small measure of surprise. _That was odd. I'd never heard a Shadow flat-out apologize for attacking a Sailor Scout...the closest was Tithon reining in his cell, and I wouldn't consider that much of an apology._

Rini dropped her head and unstrapped a backpack from her shoulder. "I didn't think much of it at the time because she lied about everything else. Including why she was there."

"It was probably a trick to make you let down your guard," suggested Sailor Jupiter. "We can't put anything past them, especially when you think about how Tithon and Amethyst would say ANYTHING to turn Logan against us."

Rini removed the same light blue crystal globe I'd seen her use to communicate with Pegasus before. "I wonder if that's why Pegasus asked us not to attack her. He clammed up when I asked him later. He said...he wanted to talk with Logan."

Everyone's eyes fell upon me. _Was it over Alyssa? But...we already knew she had turned against us. What else could Pegasus want with me?_

Sailor Venus pulled me in close with one arm. "Maybe you and I could talk with Pegasus together? We need everybody on-board."

"You're sure about helping the Starlights?" I asked my girlfriend. "I know you're looking for another way to fight the Shadows, but don't you think we should find out more about what they're up to first? Like why the Shadows are after their fugitive."

"The Shadows are just out to spite us at every turn. I'm sure the Starlights will tell us everything once they see how much we trust you," asserted Sailor Mars. _Except I wasn't convinced that was it._

"The Starlights are our friends, and our fellow Sailor Scouts. We have an obligation to help them," agreed Sailor Mercury.

"Are you sure that feeling is mutual?" Darien asked her. "I heard they would have blasted half of Tokyo looking for their Princess, if it weren't for Sailor Moon."

"The Starlights were...different people then. And we're fighting a different enemy here," asserted Sailor Venus. "We didn't kill Tithon or Amethyst because we wanted too. They just wouldn't listen."

"Mina's right. We're Sailor SOLDIERS. Our mission is to protect this planet and our Princess," Sailor Mars reminded them.

"But Mina IS right: the Shadows aren't monsters, or phages that we can heal. We already tried with Tithon." Serena hung her head. _She didn't like where this conversation was heading anymore than I did._.. _or mentioning her father. I told them killing him was necessary to spare her pain...but I knew in my heart that wasn't true. He was starting to open his heart again to the possibility Serena would listen...we just ran out of time._

"Something tells me the Starlights aren't telling us the whole truth," I confided.

"I know you're slow to trust, Logan. I don't blame you for that," Serena said understandingly. "But I know Seiya would never lie to me. Not about something this important."

"That's just it...he seemed pretty quiet during the whole thing," I admitted to her.

"I'm not a fan of theirs so far either, but...I still choke up when I think about what Wiseman nearly did to Crystal Tokyo." Rini said quietly. "So I don't blame Seiya for that."

"Sounds like we have a couple of wrinkles to smooth out before committing to anything involving the Starlights," Darien observed. "I'm not entirely sure taking our focus off the Shadows as a whole to work with the Starlights is the right move."

"But if we help them, they'll help us!" Sailor Jupiter added. "Like Serena said, we shouldn't turn away the help if we need it!"

"I have an idea!" Sailor Venus grabbed Rini's shoulders. "I still owe Logan a tour of the city, and the park seems like the best place to start? Why don't we try and decide by then, and I'll let Seiya know if I see him? And of course, you're welcome to come with us, Rini?"

Serena raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you want to take Rini to COUPLES PARK with Logan, Mina?"

"Couples park?! Nobody else calls it that, Serena!" Mina anxiously swung her arm around mine.

"Hey, Trista takes me to that park once in a while! It's really nice!" Hotaru brightened up.

"Well, as long as Hotaru's going..." Serena sighed.

Sailor Venus leaned over to whisper into Rini's ear. "Meet us, say...around ten-forty-five-ish?" Rini gently nodded so the others couldn't see, so Venus began tugging me to the door. "Let's book it, hubby!"

"Wait, Mina?" Sailor Jupiter called out after her. "Going to the park as Sailor Venus is going to draw a lot of attention!"

Sailor Venus scratched the back of her head with her other arm. "Oh, silly me! Wait right here, Logan! I know just what to wear!"

"Make sure you don't "accidentally" borrow something from my closet!" Sailor Mars chided her, before she also left in the direction of her grandfather's room _. Enjoy the space while it lasts,_ I thought to myself. Despite my reservations about the Starlights, I had the feeling that Raye's Temple was bound to get awfully crowded...

 **To Be Continued**

* * *

 **A/N:** Hope you've enjoyed the Sailor Scouts' (and Darien's :P) reunion with the Starlights...as puke-worthy as it may have been in a few spots! Definitely a couple anti-Starlights fans in here...I'll be forthcoming and admit, I'm not a big fan of the Starlights either, but I'm doing my best to keep everyone in character.

Poor Logan, back to the "we don't trust him" theme but again, it's just in the Starlights' character - even as they simultaneously expect him to stroke their collective ego! I was very shy growing up myself: I remember being called a "mute" and implied "special needs" myself, so that's where I can relate to my own character even as I'm avoiding "writing myself into the story. Mini-note: some of the banter, especially Seiya's reaction to Hotaru's "boy band" line, was inspired by my notes with Lisseas! Hopefully you enjoyed the lighthearted moments in here!

And so, I've set poor Stephanie up for a collision with her least-favorite suitor :P Could a reunion with Logan also be in the cards? You'll just have to tune in next time! Hope you enjoyed my latest, look forward to hearing from you!


	10. Keep Your Friends Close

**Chapter 10: Keep Your Friends Close  
**

 _Logan_

 _"The Moon shines on the endless shores...I want to take you there!"_

I resisted the urge to breath a sigh of relief when Mina gently tugged the earphones she loaned me out of my ears, her introduction to Three Lights' music from their final concert completed. Mina had set the volume up to the point my eardrums would have ruptured if the audience had broken into thunderous applause once more time.

My fingers drifted to the edge of our yellow circular bench, having cleared off just enough snow for us to sit together, while Mina packed her earphones away. She was all smiles. _How could she not be? "Lover's Park" sounded exactly like her sort of place! At the entrance, she mentioned this place_ _looked very different when it wasn't buried underneath the now. I could picture the serenity this place was supposed to be in the summer: trees gently blowing in the wind, flowers blooming, maybe some cherry blossoms falling around us. Mina had been glum a few minutes ago that the usual rides and attractions were covered with tarps and closed...but peace and quiet suited me best. Not something I could expect much of when the whole gang was together. Not that I missed my lonely days, but I had to admit...I was elated to have some alone time for getting to know my girlfriend. We had barely known each other two weeks - and I'd spent a good portion of it either unconscious or bleeding out on the floor.  
_  
Any trace of Mina's earlier disappointment was long gone, though. She was back to her usual, bubbly self, reminiscing about the Three Lights. "Their last concert was SO packed, but it was worth it...up to when Galaxia interrupted anyway, but don't let me turn into a total downer! So...was their music totally cool or what?"

 _If any of the others had asked me, I might have allowed the words"or what?" to escape my lips, but I didn't want to test Mina's cheer._ Sure enough, my girlfriend raised one puzzled eyebrow waiting for my answer. Still, I didn't want to look into her doe eyes, wide with anticipation, and outright lie. "It's...OK."

"Just OK?" Mina closed her eyes in the shape of rainbows, but I could tell she was surprised by anything less than reaching for her earphones again.

"It's...not really my type?" I admitted shyly.

Mina reopened her eyes and playfully started to pout. "I just had to fall for Mister Hard-To-Please himself, didn't I?"

"Right, THAT'S why I didn't have a girlfriend before I met Sailor V herself! I wouldn't settle for anyone else!" I smirked.

Mina teasingly punched my shoulder. "You shameless flatterer! I'm sure you've got a whole stack of Valentines Day notes hidden away, forgotten in a dresser somewhere! You're not fooling anyone, Logie!"  
 _  
_"Logie?" I stuck my tongue out at her. "I'll stick with Serena calling us 'Vegan'. I'd even settle for calling me 'Turtle' right now, MINAKO!"

I knew I had messed up when any trace of humor evaporated from Mina's face. It was replaced by a full scowl, Mina watching me through narrowed eyes. Even her voice went eerily flat: "Just for future reference, sweetheart: only two people call me by full name. My mom, and Artemis. It's their way of showing when they're mad at me...or getting under my skin."

"Oh! Er - sorry, I didn't know!" I stammered a quick apology. _Just like when I called Stephanie HER birth name in grade school. Except she would bide her time, wait for the right moment to get back at me. True, I'd never heard anyone actually call Mina "Minako" but her full name was written on her nurse outfit!_

Crap! I didn't bring any tissues! Quick, stop thinking about the nurse outfit, STOP THINKING ABOUT THE NURSE OUTFIT!

"Mina, Logan! Hi!" Rini appeared behind us wearing a red jacket, her bright face smiling adorably. _Her timely arrival got my mind elsewhere._

"Hey Rini! Didn't Hotaru say she was coming with you?" I asked.

"Yeah, she's hanging out with Diana over there!" Rini pointed at Hotaru. There she was, trudging her way through the snow with a book in hand and her gray-furred feline companion balancing on her shoulder.

"Either she really likes the outdoors or she really likes reading." I caught a snowflake on its way to the ground. _It was still bitterly cold, with flurries from time to time. I knew Hotaru still wasn't very healthy, despite her tremendous power as Sailor Saturn._

"Hotaru spent a lot of time cooped up indoors because she gets sick easily." Rini shifted her gaze to her friend, giggling in the distance while Diana licked the violet-eyed girl's cheek. "I hope she doesn't catch a cold."

"Those two are welcome to cozy on up with us, pick up a few tips while she's on the go...err, provided they don't blab to Serena and Darien," Mina retracted. _Well, I was sure Diana wouldn't squeal but she seemed easily confused every once in a while. As for Serena and Darien...they had staunchly opposed allowing their future daughter to fall under the "Goddess of Love's" wing. In fact, they said they didn't want Mina giving Rini any advice. EVER. But Mina found her way, and I had to admit...I liked the idea of the three of us hanging out together. Maybe it would help Rini get used to the idea._

"Umm...I hope I'm not interrupting anything." _Rini noticed I had spaced out, however briefly. I knew Serena wanted us transparent...she didn't want us hiding things from each other anymore. Well, besides the candy stash she hid from Rini...that was her way. But I couldn't help worrying I might be losing my touch as a Shadow...though maybe that was what they wanted._

This time, I pushed the thought out of my head just when Mina finished shaking hers. "Don't worry about it Rini, we were just wrapping things up! Although...we weren't expecting you here so early!"

"I thought you said to meet you fifteen minutes before eleven!" Rini rolled up the sleeve of her jacket to peek at a leather-strapped wrist watch. _Serena's watch, of course._ "It's four minutes past that!"

"Ah! Then that is where we shall begin, young grasshopper." Mina clasped her hands together and bowed her head like a sage kung-fu master. "I, Professor Aino, the Mentor of Love, will teach you everything I know and help you find a dashing Prince for our future Kingdom! Lesson one: the fine art of fashionable lateness!"

Rini and I swapped befuddled looks while Mina reached for the massive floral handbag she brought to the park and frantically clawing through it. She tossed a black gown with a golden academic scarf-like stole over her lavender coat, then she planted a four-sided mortarboard cap on her head. After she assembled her attire, Mina finished off her look with a thin pair of spectacles.

"Are those Amy's reading glasses?" Rini asked.

Mina answered with a flick of the hand. "I've only seen her wear these for reading every once in a blue moon. I'm sure she won't mind if I borrow them!"

"Uh, Mina..." I was unsettled by recent entries to the park stopping to gawk at her out-of-place regalia. "Why wear a graduation cap and gown to Rini's FIRST lesson?"

Mina's eyes grew wider than the transparent lenses over them. "GRAD cap and gown? I thought all American university teachers dressed like this!"

"No. Most of the time, they just wear regular clothes," I answered quietly. "Students wear robes like that too, when they graduate."

Mina raised a pondering figure to her lip. "So...American students DO have to wear uniforms, but only on their last day at that particular school? When you never have to go to classes there again?"  
 _  
_Rini gave me the same quizzical look. "And you only wear them once?"

"Well, some American schools have uniforms all-year round," I tried clarifying to both of them. "And the same teachers can go to different commencement ceremonies every year. THEY hold on to their gowns, I'm sure."

Mina clasped her hands together. "Oh, good! I'll still get some mileage out of these! Say, Rini - I've gotta make sure we match when YOU graduate! We have to be color-coordinated!"

"K, just...if you're gonna take my measurements, ask me while I'm awake?" Rini received a frown from Mina... _ANOTHER story about Mina the others enjoyed repeating, even though Mina had some company when she sneaked into my room that time._

"Mina...we shouldn't overdo it," I whispered in her ear. _I was a little worried, especially after Wicked Lady dropped by for a dream visit, that Rini wasn't completely over her crush._ "We don't want to make things awkward for Rini. We're just older friends giving her some advice - "  
 _  
_"You're exactly right, Logan! See? I couldn't ask for a better Teaching Assistant!" Mina beamed. I caught Rini's eyes follow Mina's arm as it crossed over mine to pull me in close, but the rest of Rini's face took it in mildly. _Maybe Rini HAD gotten used to the fact Mina and I were together...or Rini knew me well enough to hide if she wasn't. I hoped it was the former..._

"Back on track, Rini!" Mina pointed a triumphant figure at the sky. "Like I said, you need to decide very carefully which events you want to be late to. Serena's got the right idea, but she lacks discretion! When YOU'RE the life of the party, you don't want to be the one who leaves everybody hanging around the table, waiting for you to show!"

"Like on a date, right?" asked Rini.

"Nope, you should ALWAYS be late for dates, Rini!" Mina corrected. "At LEAST ten minutes late if you've set the date in advance, fifteen if it's same-day!"

 _There was no mistaking the vacancy in Rini's eyes: Mina had lost her_. "But you just said not to be late if you're the center of attention! I thought it wasn't right to leave your date hanging!"

"You don't want to seem too anxious, Rini!" Mina tossed her golden hair in the wind. "And you want to avoid getting there first! You want your date to see that you're a vigorous young woman with a bustling social life and the world is your oyster!"

"Amy would be impressed you used so many big words," I teased... _disregarding Mina's vacant "what did I just say?" look._

"I think I understand." Rini shifted in her seat to face me. _She was looking for my input - Mina and I were a team, after all._ "But what if the guy you're going out with has the same idea? Somebody has to show up first, right?"

"Oh, guys have a sixth sense about these things, Rini!" Mina snuggled up to me. "Patience and understanding are the marks of a true gentleman, and guys jump on the opportunity to impress! Right, Logie?"

Rini smirked at that nickname. _Start calling me "Logie," Rini, and I'll start calling YOU "grasshopper" on a regular basis!_ "Yeah..." I blankly agreed with Mina... _though I wrote myself a mental note that I could take up to nine minutes after Mina set a date._

"Of course, no lesson's complete without real-life examples!" Mina proudly declared. "Serena told me SHE was about to walk when Seiya showed up late for THEIR date! See, Rini? He showed up SUPER late because he's a super-popular star, and he knows that's the mark of a classy guy who puts winning the bread first! Wait, is that an actual phrase?"

"BACK UP A MINUTE!" Rini jumped out of her seat. "I knew Darien wasn't thrilled Seiya came back, but nobody told me he tried to get his paws all over Serena while Darien was gone! Didn't any of you try and stop him?!"

Mina rushed to wipe the sweat drop off her brow with the edge of her graduation gown. "Oh, silly me! I misspoke, didn't I? I meant to say it was a totally valid non-date example! Seiya was being a good friend, cheering Serena up because we didn't know what happened to Darien on his way to America! We...overreacted, just a smidge! What do you say we move on to lesson two?"

Rini answered with a little pout, but Mina went on and continued anyway: "Next, we'll talk about public displays of affection! Hugging, kissing, and...did future Serena and Darien bring up the third one with you yet?"

"You mean snuggling?" asked Rini.

"...I'll take that as a "no."" Mina also stood up and brought her hand to her temple palm-down, as if she were saluting. "Now remember: just because people hug and kiss in public, it's still impolite to stare. These are deeply intimate moments between those involved, not spectacles to be gawked at. So if you see two people having a personal moment, point at them and I'll go into detail, OK?"

"I'm not an expert on this," I admitted to Mina shyly, "but maybe this lesson's going a little fast - "

The frigid air suddenly quelled the words from my throat and froze the air out of my lungs when my eyes caught a familiar face circling the trees in the park. Her head also swiveled to and fro, as if she were also searching for someone. Her gaze just barely fell short of our chair, but the briefest glimpse of her face sent me into shock... _STEPHANIE?!_

I hadn't seen her in years, but she looked just like I remembered: her fair skin, the wavy dark-brown hair with a few rogue curls that always cropped up when she let straightening her hair go for too long, and her features as soft as the Sailor Scouts. If I had any doubts, I saw one hand drop from whatever she was carrying to cling to an ill-fitting but suitable beige jacket. _Like she hadn't expected this weather...like she wasn't from around here..._  
 _  
_"Yoo-hoo, sweetie!" Mina waved a hand in front of my face. "You were in the middle of a sentence?"

I found Rini also staring at me inquisitively. "Anything wrong?" While I hesitated to answer, both girls squinted off at the direction I had been staring.

"Oh, wow! I can barely see anything through these lenses!" Mina had lowered her 'borrowed' glasses down the roof of her nose. "I wonder if Amy wears contacts?"

"I..." Again, I stopped mid-sentence when the woman who looked like Stephanie halted in her steps. _She was_ _watching Hotaru abandon her snowy respite and skip down the path_. Stephanie - or her lookalike - rubbed her fingers against a small stack of papers in her hands. _Whether she really was Stephanie, she was following Hotaru._ So I asked Rini and Mina:"Where's Hotaru going?"

"Maybe just the bathroom," Rini suggested. _She hadn't noticed Stephanie in the distance, and Mina had gotten sidetracked again...but they had seen her when Tithon trapped us in my dream world, and they glimpsed my memories. They would recognize her...Stephanie's timing and her interest in Hotaru couldn't be a coincidence._

"We'd better follow her," sighed Mina. "She should have let us know, we're supposed to stay together!"

"I wouldn't worry about it, but I'll go with her." I volunteered, though I had a second motive. "As teacher's assistant, handling interruptions is part of my job, right?"

"She'll be OK, Diana's with her!" Rini cheered.

"Rini, you know I love Diana, but that's not very comforting," Mina sighed. Stephanie - if that was her - was still trailing Hotaru from a distance. _What was she up to? They were almost out of my sightline, I had to hurry if I was going to find out..._

"Relax. I'll take care of it," I assured Mina and Rini. I could feel their eyes still glued to my back, so I turned around and reassured them. "Don't worry. If there is some kind of ambush, I can scream pretty loud."

Mina took the hint and sighed heavily, falling back onto her bench. "While my TA's away, we can go over the school reading list!"

"Oh no, am I gonna have homework?!" Rini pouted before I ran after Stephanie and Hotaru. _Please tell me you're not a part of this, Steph. As much as I want to see you again...I hope that isn't you I'm following. Under Tithon, I've already seen the Shadows kidnap Grandpa Hino, brainwash Melvin and do both with Amy's boyfriend Greg. You don't deserve any of that, Stephanie..._  
 _  
_

* * *

 _Stephanie_

I cursed myself after I had allowed the girl I pegged for Tomoe's daughter to disappear past the bustling line for the ladies' restroom. _I still couldn't be sure it was her...the girl was a bit shorter than I expected, possibly younger, but her dark hair radiated the same hue hue I saw in Tomoe's photo. It was even cut to the same length. I was so close to her, all that was left to do was call her name and see if she responded...but I had allowed my lingering shyness to intersect with the fear I was chasing a dead end, and both emotions got the better of me. Chasing her into the bathroom would be going too far...better to just wait a few minutes for her to come back out and try again._  
 _  
_My lips quivered in the breeze as I took in my surroundings. The nagging sense that somebody was watching ME persisted, but logic set that aside. Every pair of eyes that past by remained squarely on their own business. _I was nervous because I was testing my luck even further. I was supposed to drop by the address Tomoe gave me for a quick peek, drop off the letters if she was there, and return. But I feared a disappointed Doctor Tomoe as much as I feared a bitter Alyssa admonishing me with "Svetlana" upon my return. At least if I did return with his letters in my hands, I could tell him I tried. I was too close to give up now._

Thanks for the coat though, Amara and Michelle,

I thought as I crossed my arms over my chest. It was a poor fit, but it did its job. _I was sure to return with a cold if I had been stuck waiting outside this long without one._ _And maybe, just maybe, Alyssa had worn herself out so readily that she'd be fast asleep upon my return. But even if she was planning an extra special, punishment round of Twister for going AWOL to run a personal errand for Doctor Tomoe, I had to take it on myself to enjoy the moment. I wasn't even thinking of going on vacation a couple of days ago, even if travel was supposed to be one of the Shadows' perks. But here I was, halfway around the world, in one of the East's crown cities. It was just a shame to come when most of the booths and amusements were hidden away under tarps: even buried under the white blanket, this park was still a marvel to behold._  
 _  
_"HEY!" _Seiya's voice brought an end to my shivering as well as any fireplace_. _Just hold still and don't look at him, Steph: he's gotta be calling some other bimbo! Shameless flirts like him don't even remember your name the next morning!_

"Thanks a lot! Now Taiki and I owe him twenty bucks!" _Wonderful: Yaten was here with him, and the chances they were both harping on somebody else were considerably narrower._ If I wasn't waiting on Hotaru - _or at least, the girl I HOPED was Hotaru -_ I'd make a run for it.

"Waiting here patiently? I didn't think you could shoo us off any faster last night!" mocked Taiki. _Yup, the whole gang was here, just for me. Terrific...now I missed the mobs of screaming fangirls to chase the Three Lights around, they'd make a good distraction at least!_

In that moment, I didn't care if they were closet Sailor Scouts. _I just wanted them to go away._ I spun on one heel to face the egotistical trio - _too smug even to throw a coat over the EXACT same business suits they wore from last night!_ "Seiya! I get having throngs of clingy teenage girls chasing you around might have numbed you to societal aversion towards stalkers. But where I come from, when you ask somebody you just met on a date, and they say they're not interested, that is NOT code for 'follow me everywhere I go'!"  
 _  
_"What is with you and all these mind games?!" Seiya blurted out. "What, are you throwing a hissy fit because I got here after eleven?"  
 _  
_"Why should I - " _Oh, hell! Seiya asked if we could meet at THE park at eleven last night! I said no, but I played right into what he wanted without even realizing it._ I launched into a grumble: "Of all the parks you COULD have meant, why did it have to be THIS one?! It's a big city! How many - "  
 _  
Wait! There was the violet-eye girl, coming out of the restroom! She did look younger than I expected, but her hair...her eyes...she was a perfect match, I was sure of it!_ Yet that didn't stop me from shifting my eyes away from her just when she brushed past _. IDIOT!_ I turned back just in time to catch her face had just turned sour. _That had nothing to do with me, did it?_

"Oh - she was the girl from this morning!" Taiki raised a hand to her face. "She looks peeved I didn't recognize her." _Oh, THAT'S why she soured! That's in keeping with the three I met last night: expecting everybody else to remember them when the rest of us are just the faceless masses!_

"Wait, you're following the kid?!" Seiya yelped my way, though more so out of wounded pride. "And you called ME a stalker?!"

"I'm her father's friend, idiot! I'd say "beat it", but since you can't grasp the concept..." I gave Seiya a twisted grin and pointed to the ground at his feet. "Maybe if you stand here in this very spot the rest of the day, someone will finally recognize you!"

"Ouch!" whinged Yaten.

Just after I turned my back on them, I heard Seiya mumbling to his cohorts: "she's a real pro at this whole "hard-to-get" thing!"

I forgot I was carrying the stack of Tomoe's letters and came to regret crumpling them in my hands during my subsequent fit. _Calm down, Steph. At least they didn't recognize you without your robes...though I couldn't count on them staying that thick forever._

* * *

I caught my eyes darting around furtively as I followed Hotaru, STILL unable to shake the feeling I had a stalker of my own. But for all of Seiya's huff, there was no sign of those wanna-be musicians tailing me. The girl halted to stare at an empty bench. I heard a gentle bell ringing beside her as I came closer behind her, and found an adorable gray kitten with pointy ears and a red collar meowing at me. But the girl gave a startled yelp when she followed her kitten's line of sight and found me standing there. _No reason to hold back now:_ "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I'm looking for Hotaru Tomoe?"

I thought Hotaru might have been shy, the way her eyes expanded when she saw my face. Or that her thin jacket might have betrayed her to the cold air, the way her shivers grew. I noticed her kitten was wearing a dark blue bonnet when she looked up to her owner. _Wait...that bonnet looked an awful lot like a Shadow hood. Nah...it had to be a coincidence. It's not like we declared our existence from the rooftops._

"Who's asking?" Hotaru finally asked me. _I thought I caught a trace of hostility in her voice._ _No sign of anyone accompanying her...not her guardian 'Trista' or anyone else._ _Maybe she was more guarded because she was alone...just break the ice, Steph._  
 _  
_I held up the pile of envelopes with her father's handwriting. "My name's Stephanie. I'm a friend of Doctor Tomoe! He wrote these for you but he didn't know your address, so I offered to deliver them."

Hotaru backed further away from me and clutched something hidden in her pocket. The little kitty started looking back-and-forth between us, while Hotaru challenged me further: "Where did you get those? How did you meet my father?"

"Uh..." _Now she was terrifying me, but I held myself together the best I could._ "I think you're mistaking me for someone else. I don't really know anyone around here, I've only been in this country a few hours."

"I don't think you came all the way here just to drop off some letters." _Now Hotaru was downright accusatory._ "Tell me where you met my father!"  
 _  
_Now, even her cat started hissing at me. _Wait...was that a crescent moon mark on her forehead?!_

"Hotaru, it's OK." I jumped at a third voice directly behind me. _No way that was Seiya...he would have announced his presence from a mile away but I hadn't even heard this guy's_ _footsteps!_ His voice was lower, softer, more subdued...and it definitely wasn't Seiya's face greeting mine. It was one I had actually wanted to see again, but never expected to find here. _No...I wasn't ready to see him again..._

"Logan..." I backed off to the side in fright. _I hadn't seen him in seven years, and even that reunion had been so brief I hadn't matched the deeper tone of his voice to his older face...recognizable as he was. As ridiculous as it looked in my head, I still pictured him as I saw him last, his seventeen-year old self carrying the same voice of the boy I knew._ I couldn't even bring myself to look in his eyes again, afraid of what I'd see. _The same furious intensity Hotaru had cast me? A victorious smirk just before the Sailor Scouts appeared beside him, with their eyes taunting me like vultures just waiting for the reborn Spymaster to launch the opening blow?_  
 _  
_I flinched at his sneakers taking a stride towards me, freezing when I saw his arms opening my way... _and he HUGGED me_. _Just like he had at my mother's funeral, even after all the trouble I got him into claiming he had touched me inappropriately. I thought he'd hate me forever, but...here he was_. And just like that day seven years ago, the dams holding back the tears in my eyes spilled open in an instant...

"I'M SORRY!" The words I'd held on to for seven years flowed with them in a mad rush. "I'm sorry for being the worst friend of all time, for kicking you out of my mom's funeral when you tried to comfort me, and for not returning your calls! I just can't do the right thing when it comes to you! I thought you'd be better off without me, but all of this is my fault!"

"None of this was your fault," Logan rubbed my back, speaking in his ever-gentle tone. _If only more people saw this side of him...he never would have been alone_. "I made my choices, and...I never would have regretted being friends with you. I just...wish I knew the right thing to say to convince you that...you don't need to punish yourself anymore."

"I'm sorry for being suspicious. I see he trusts you," Hotaru apologized to me. She managed to smile this time: _such a genuine and pretty face_. "I shouldn't have wandered off on my own, Logan. Sorry for that, too."

"You had Diana with you," Logan shrugged. He earned himself a cheerful 'meow' from the kitty, as if she understood what he was saying... _though maybe she did, if that crescent moon mark was any indicator. Whether she was here with Logan or Hotaru just stumbled across her, I had to tread lightly_. _But for a moment...just a moment...I only saw Logan, not the dreaded traitor to the Shadows I had been warned about. Even if Diana was acting as the Sailor Scouts' eyes and ears, I just wanted this moment to last a bit longer._

Hotaru handed one of the envelopes to Logan, complete with Doctor Tomoe's spastic handwriting. Logan slipped one of his fingers underneath and lifted the flap without leaving a single mark, as if it had been left open in the first place. Logan's eyes briefly pored over it: "I didn't hear any ticking, so that's a good sign. It didn't throw mystery powder in my face when I opened it either...looks safe to me."

"Was the bonnet your idea?" I couldn't help asking him, pointing at the bonnet as I asked... _even though I was treading dangerously close to unraveling this little fantasy where the last thirteen years never happened_. Logan smiled... _well, he raised the corners of his mouth, always too shy even to show his teeth as I remembered_. But he didn't answer me, so I tiptoed around again: "who knew you'd make friends more easily seven thousand miles around the world?"  
 **  
**"Six-thousand seven-hundred and forty, approximately. That's about Ten-thousand eight-hundred and fifty kilometers...I looked it up," Logan corrected me. _I did NOT remember him being such a wise-ass growing up...but it was good he developed a sense of humor that didn't come at his own expense._

"I just..." _As much as I wanted to pretend everything in the last thirteen years just never happened, I knew that I couldn't make this moment last forever. Logan WAS helping the Sailor Scouts conquer the world, and a Guardian Cat just like the pair that brainwashed Sailor Moon and Sailor V in the first place was sitting here watching. I had to say something..._ "I hope they're all good ones, Logan."

"They are good friends," Logan answered. _He kept himself difficult to read, just like Alyssa had told me to expect. His tone was almost flat. Maybe some part of him really did believe that. But I knew his mind was always working, that if Sailor Moon had left some trace of the original in there, he'd know..._

Diana briefly jumped on my shoulder and purred softly. My fingers were halfway towards stroking my neck when Alyssa's nagging tone rang louder. _I couldn't trust Diana...the Sailor Scouts were great at acting cutesy and hiding their true colors._ So I retracted my hand and pressed Logan further: "Can you be sure about all of them?"

Diana returned to the pavement below, staring up at me with a neutral face and ears completely straight. But Hotaru's sniffling briefly thawed the numbing frost between the rest of us...

"Oh daddy..." Hotaru's teary-eyed response to her father's letter pulled Logan closer to her. "I miss him so much."

"He misses you too," I assured her. "He's working hard because he wants you to be proud of him. He wants to be a family again."

"Is he here?" Hotaru's violet eyes, reflecting the same sheen as her hair, darted across the winter wonderland with childish enthusiasm. "Or is he waiting back at home? He didn't say when I could see him - can we go right now?"

"He's..." _No. I just couldn't tell her about the lab. Alyssa would kill me. I hated this part...I thought I could drop off the letters, cheer her up, and cheer Doctor Tomoe up...but life just couldn't be that simple._ "I...can't exactly tell you where he is. It's a business thing."

"But you said he wanted to see me!" With gentle streams still trickling down her face, the fury in her eyes resurfaced. "You were sent by the people who kidnapped my dad, weren't you?!"

"What?! Hotaru, no one kidnapped your dad!" I pleaded. "I just saw him, he's doing really well! I promise!"  
 _  
_"Logan, I know you sense what I do!" _Doctor Tomoe's daughter...she wasn't all she appeared to be. Coming here with a Guardian Cat AND Logan couldn't have been coincidence. It was my fault, for not thinking of it sooner..._

"Stephanie..." _Logan wasn't one for making eye contact - he was so shy when we were little, I remember I'd have to remind him he could look in mine early in our friendship...like most of Americans, before I understood him it unnerved me when he didn't. But he didn't need my 'permission' to look into mine with his darker shade of bear-brown eyes._ "We know about the Shadows. If they took Hotaru's dad and they're coercing you somehow...if they're holding one of your loved ones...Hotaru and I have friends who can help."

It pained me to hear those words coming from his lips. It was sinking in that Logan WAS with the enemy now, however Sailor Moon got him on board with their plot for world conquest. So I matched his eyes with a stare of my own. "The Shadows didn't take anyone from me, Logan. Sailor Moon did. Why don't you tell your so-called friends to let him go?"

"The Sailor Scouts don't kidnap people!" Hotaru blurted out, though she retracted when I shifted my look to her. _The same fire that challenged me earlier was nowhere to be seen...she didn't want to scare me off this time._

"I know Sailor Moon uses kids!" Hotaru withered further under my own charge. "Two of hers threatened me with weapons at the hospital!"

Hotaru shook her head and backed away from me with trembling eyes. "No, the Shadows brainwashed you into believing something that didn't happen to you! The Sailor Scouts don't threaten innocent people! That was a Shadow at the hospital!"

 _Hotaru was trying to be vague, but the gig was up. Why else would she defend the Sailor Scouts so passionately? Doctor Tomoe's own daughter...and Alyssa just contracted him to create monsters to protect us from the likes of her. That thought made me as sick as hearing the Sailor Scouts mention Charon's name for the first time._

"I also know..." I paused for a gulp while Hotaru watched me with growing anxiety. "...Sailor Moon wouldn't let Charon far from her sight. You were at the hospital, too. Weren't you, Hotaru?"

Hotaru opened her mouth, but only pained whispers and silent stutters escaped the first time. Then her impassioned disposition returned:"You don't know her! Sailor Moon saved me! She saved my dad, too!"

"Stephanie, please come back with us," Logan pleaded. "Just meet the others before you decide who to believe. That's all I ask."

"The Sailor Scouts aren't who you think they are, Logan - " I began, but I was interrupted by the sound of rustling in the distance. I swiveled behind Logan so that he was covering me when an energetic blonde with fair skin and a distinctive red bow in her hair popped her head from the shrubs.

"There you are! Finally!" she cheered Logan's way. "You get lost on your way to the bathroom?"

I couldn't risk a closer peek without our latest arrival catching me, but a second head sprung up from the bush. This one belonged to another girl, around Hotaru's age from first look... _but she shared Sailor Mini Moon's distinctive pink hair with two rabbit ear-shaped cones at the top. Pink hair was always a rarity - even for countries like Japan with so many varying hair and eye colors. I had pushed my luck far enough. It was time to go..._

"I only came to drop off his letters," I whispered in Logan's ear.

"Steph, don't do this again." Logan fully turned around, leaving me right in the newcomers' sightlines.

"LOGAN!" The blonde girl screeched and raised her fist in my general direction. "THAT BETTER NOT BE WHO I THINK IT IS!"

"What's SHE doing here?!" cried the pink-haired girl.

I didn't know why they had such a strong reaction to seeing Logan talking to another girl - _maybe the other Scouts were more overbearing than Hotaru?_ But Logan swinging back around to face their wrath was my cue to escape.

"Wait! Come back!" Hotaru called out, but I dashed over the snow as quickly as I could, using the trees to break my silhouette as Alyssa had taught me. _What a mess I had gotten myself into. There was no way I could risk leading Charon and a complement of Sailor Scouts back towards Doctor Tomoe's lab, but I would just have to figure it out on the way..._

My dash was interrupted when a figure disguised by the shade pounced on me from a tree overhead. _Just as Alyssa would have_...except that even my brief look at her as I sidestepped her initial fall was enough to warn me she was no Shadow. _Not by her flowing long hair and front ribbon_. She moved faster than I ever would have expected from a Sailor Scout: she landed gracefully on her feet and swung a familiar, key-shaped rod that she kept concealed behind her back before I could even react. Even before I could will my Shadow robes into form, her rod struck me on the side of my head. She knocked the wind from my lungs and left the desolate forest around me an utter blur as I crashed into the snow.

"SAILOR PLUTO!" _Pluto...of course...the one I met in Charon Castle."_ A little girl's voice squeaked... _except it didn't belong to Hotaru or the girl who showed up with the blonde. Diana?!_

"I am sorry..." Sailor Pluto's dispassionate voice contrasted her choice of words as she used her foot to position me flat on my back. As unfocused as my vision was, there was no mistaking the so-called Guardian of Time herself standing over me: long green hair fluttering behind her, her olive complexion mirroring Logan's gentle tan, and her infamous Time Rod. She clutched her silver instrument again and winded it back as if it were a golf club. "But we can't risk her escaping again."

This time, I barely felt the orb-shaped end of her instrument collide with my forehead again. I thought I heard Logan's voice yelling, but his words were just as blurry as my vision had been. I couldn't be sure as the whole world faded into black around me...  
 _  
_ **To Be Continued**

* * *

 **A/N:** And there you have it: Logan and Stephanie are reunited, and I pushed ahead with the ending only to find myself with a cliffhanger :/ but it's a narrative necessity sometimes!

First chapter I've had with Logan and Stephanie BOTH in a chapter together. Writing from first person carries a lot of advantages for me: I think seeing the world from a new character's point of view makes it easier to empathize with them. But it has shortcomings too: I've had key scenes in SoSM where I wracked my brain trying to think of a plausible reason for Logan to be there. SoSM had its odd third-person scene every once in a while, but it felt really jarring looking back on it. Being first person, I worry that if I transition too frequently between Stephanie and Logan you may get confused, so I hope I've done a good job at making them feel distinct and highlighting different points as they narrate. For this chapter, I chose to keep with Stephanie since we've never really seen Logan from an outside view before: the closest we came were those third-person scenes, and those were never really in-depth. After a full story writing him, I like to think - and I've been encouraged by several readers :) - that Logan is a living, breathing part of Sailor Moon's universe now. He started as a blank slate character and now he has as much of his own traits, his own quirks, and his own personality as the "canon" group.

Last but not least: I thought Sailor Pluto's takedown seemed harsh, but I remembered that this is someone well-acquainted with the use of force. As someone who can be ruthless in ELIMINATING anyone who treads near the Space-Time Gate, slamming her Rod into Stephanie's head to knock her out didn't seem OOC in that light. I think we're just not used to being on the receiving end of the Sailor Scouts' punishment!

So, next chapter...Stephanie meets the Sailor Scouts, talk their issues out and become best buddies, right? Well...the Sailor Scouts aren't above suspicion and distrust, especially when it comes to outsiders. SoSM followed in the anime's example with Logan, and it's pretty clear where most of the team stands when it comes to Shadows. Even if Steph DOES stick around to talk things over, the next chapter may not go the way you expect...or hope it will...but that's what (I hope!) keeps it interesting!

Thanks for reading, guys! I've been keeping an eye on Scourge's word count, we're closing in on a thousand views. It's decent, but I'm worrying that interest may have peetered out mid-SoSM...or if the dual narrative just isn't resonating with some people. I know view count's not always a good indicator of how good your story is, but I would like to hear from you reading what you think of Scourge now that we're 10 chapters in :) If you're enjoying, that's awesome! But don't worry about being negative or critical, it's how we get better! Hope to hear from you soon!


	11. The World Turned Upside Down

**Chapter 11: The World Turned Upside Down**

(Chapter Revised 3/29/2016)

 _Logan_

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" I yelled to Sailor Pluto, holding her Garnet Rod over an unconscious Stephanie. _I could hardly believe what I just saw: Stephanie had fallen to the ground before Sailor Pluto. She had no chance of resisting, and Pluto just swung her Garnet Orb into Stephanie's head as if it were a golf ball!_

"Use of sleeper holds was never our way." Sailor Pluto answered matter-of-factly.

"So you club her in the back of the head, instead?!" I couldn't help screeching. "For all the things I do that make you uncomfortable!"

"No need to be so dramatic." Sailor Pluto remained stoic in the face of my anger. "She'll be fine, I promise."  
 _ **  
**_"GET OUT FROM BEHIND MY LOGIE BEAR! SAILOR KICK!"

Even with my Shadow reflexes, Sailor Venus nearly caught me off guard when she flew out of the bushes at near-hypersonic speed following her rant. Her wide eyes gave away that she just realized her heel wasn't aimed towards her intended target, but it was impossible for Sailor Venus to alter her angle of attack. I rolled out of the way just in time, but poor Sailor Pluto was left standing directly behind me. The ball of Sailor Venus' foot crashed into Sailor Pluto's cheek, leaving a gushing red mark and staggering the older Scout.

"That HAD to be the one thing you were good at..." Pluto complained. She regained her footing just as Rini leaped out of the bushes behind her, followed by a panting Hotaru.

Sailor Venus landed on both feet with a sense of balance that Artemis or Luna would have envied. Venus covered her mouth with both hands and bowed. "Trista! I'm so sorry! That was meant for the globe-trotting tramp on the ground!"

"I heard you got jealous easily, but THIS?!" I blurted Mina's way. "She's a civilian!"

"But she's not an INNOCENT civilian, there's a difference!" Sailor Venus quipped back.

"No there isn't!" I realized I had sidestepped unconsciously, forming a wall between Mina and Stephanie. "Ever hear of proportionate use of force? Or are the Sailor Scouts about to start kicking jaywalkers off the street next?!"

Sailor Venus slightly tilting her head and pressed her pointer finger near her chin. _A pose I would have thought adorable in another place and time: her telltale sign that she was deep in thought._ "As a matter of fact...I did that a couple of times as Sailor V! Artemis may have ragged on me for kicking a couple more folks than I had to, but this was when there was only one beautiful guardian keeping the peace of an entire shopping district!"

Sailor Venus cut herself off mid-rant when her eyes caught Sailor Pluto rolling her own. "Right, lost track! What's-her-face was lucky she didn't catch my Crescent Beam of Anger! I thought she was about to push my Logie Bear into the honey-coated trap of temptation!"

"We stopped hanging out in fifth grade! There was no fooling around!" _I was lucky this part of the park was so vacant...at least, I hoped no one could hear me._

"Tell me, Small Lady...should we stick with "Turtle" or adopt "Logie Bear" for ourselves?" I caught an earful of Sailor Pluto's side conversation with Rini. Pluto's lip crinkled in a rare show of amusement. Rini caught that I had overheard them, and merely replied to Trista with a cute smile followed by shuddering her eyelids. _Rini sure knew how to keep me guessing where I ranked on her friends list._ But Hotaru had kept her distance, untouched by their reunion. Hotaru's arms were folded across her chest, her lips squished together in a pout, and no small amount of disdain hidden behind her violet eyes. And then she reminded me why when she tossed one of the crumpled envelopes with her father's handwriting...

"This is serious matter, you two!" Sailor Venus hissed at Trista and Rini, oblivious to her own mild hypocrisy with that statement.

"You can say that again," Hotaru coldly agreed with Mina. Rini and Pluto broke their own conversation to find Hotaru's eyes still locked on to them. But before anyone had a chance to ask her what was wrong, a patter of footsteps announced the arrival of the other Scouts.

"Sailor Moon!" Diana called out our intrepid leader's name, though Serena - _as usual -_ arrived out-of-breath well behind Mercury, Mars and Jupiter. _They had all come as the Sailor Scouts, as if they were expecting trouble.  
_  
Sailor Pluto let out a deep sigh. "You said you would be right behind me, Sailor Moon."

"I was in the middle of toasting a pop tart!" whined Sailor Moon. "You didn't say this was urgent, and I love my s'mores!"

"You know...one less pastry could have made it easier to keep up," I teased.

"Try going back to making fun of me after you've seen your own girlfriend chow down!" Sailor Moon stuck her tongue out at me. I heard a nervous chuckle escape from Sailor Venus' throat.

"At least we're all accounted for...except Luna and Artemis." Diana rode atop Rini's head, as I often saw. "I hope those phony Shadows didn't capture them again."

"Don't worry," assured Sailor Mercury. "They have a distress signal, and we have a map of their search route so we would know where to start looking for them."

"So, what's this about?" Sailor Moon asked Pluto. Stephanie had been angled so the newcomers couldn't see her face, but Serena and all the others gasped when Pluto tilted Stephanie's head towards them. _They also remembered her from their tour of my memories...she was a couple of years older now, but it would take them more than a couple days to forget what they had seen there._

"You knew she was coming, didn't you?" Hotaru's voice deepened when she turned her coldness towards her guardian. "You went back to Raye's Temple for the others first. You thought we were in danger."

Sailor Pluto sighed deeply before pressing on. _As protective as she was of her facial expressions and body language, I just knew she didn't want to answer Hotaru._ "Someone came by Amara and Michelle's home searching for you. I didn't know who she was...but I knew she brought word from your father."

"Doctor Tomoe..." Sailor Mercury quietly repeated his name.

Hotaru frowned at the other two names that Pluto had raised. _They brought back bitter memories for sure_. "How did you find out?"

"Because..." Sailor Pluto lowered her head. "Michelle left me a message."

"Why are you still TALKING TO THEM?!" Hotaru dropped whatever vestige of restraint had been holding back her anger towards them...and now Trista shared it with them. _Amara and Michelle had betrayed them several times before Sailor Moon finally decided she had enough and took their transformation wands. A few nights I had heard Hotaru crying, and I knew that was why. Torn between missing the Amara and Michelle she looked up to as surrogate parents...and the traitors who would have done ANYTHING to complete their mission, even sacrificing their own.  
_

Taking advantage of the brief silence, I drew Hotaru's gaze towards Stephanie lying on the ground. "She's been there a while, Hotaru. Can we move her inside first?"

Hotaru nodded curtly and reined her fury in with a deep breath. "Alright. Our duty comes first. But I am NOT finished, Trista!"

Careful to avoid Hotaru's glare - or the eyes of anyone else - Sailor Pluto pulled Stephanie over one of her arms. Without a second thought, I reached down to do the same. Venus' gloved hand came up to block me, her blue eyes turning green as they filled to the brim with envy. She collected herself enough to pick Stephanie up and help Trista carry her into the shelter of one of the closed amusements, but I made a mistake in letting Venus get too far ahead of me...

"WHOOPS!" Venus 'accidentally' lost her grip and dropped Stephanie onto the surface headfirst. "Me and my butterfingers!"

Sailor Pluto was left shaking her head again. "That will set her back a good couple of minutes."

I tugged Sailor Venus towards one corner, though there was no taking her out of earshot without going back outside. "You know I love you. Why are you so insecure? Don't you trust me?"

Again, Venus had caught me off guard and pulled me in close with both arms. "Of course I trust you! But...through no fault of your own..."

Mina's eyes drooped, accompanied by an eerie crinkling of her brows and followed by the top half of her face turning blue. The rest of her speech came in a discomforting monotone: "BURIED DEEP WITHIN EVERY MAN'S DNA LIES A VICIOUS MONSTER INSIDE THEIR CHESTS, WAITING FOR THE RIGHT MOMENT TO TEAR ITSELF OUT AND FEED ON THE HEART OF THE WOMEN DIRECTLY BESIDE THEM. A MONSTER THAT CAN NEVER BE SATISFIED WITH JUST ONE HEART AT A TIME. A MONSTER THAT COULDN'T CARE LESS WHETHER SAID WOMAN IS IN A LOVING RELATIONSHIP OR IN THE THROES OF MARRIAGE..."

"Wait, so..." Diana's squeaky voice piped up. "Charon and King Endymion have one of those alien wormlike things in their chests, just like in that movie I saw on Raye's TV?! DOES MY DAD HAVE ONE TOO?!"

"Yes, Diana." Venus's voice remained disturbingly flat. "Just like that "Aliens" movie!"

"AAAAHHHH!" The naive kitten covered her eyes with her paws and curled up into a ball between Rini's pink 'ears'.

"What are you scaring her for?!" Sailor Mars reached to gently stroke Diana's fur after giving Venus the look of doom. "It was just a movie Diana, totally fictional!"

Sailor Moon was left shaking her head next. "Mina, you know I love you, but this is why we didn't want you teaching Rini. Darien brought up you might fill her head with this kind of manic mumbo-jumbo."

"Oh, it's fine, Serena! You know I totally respect you guys!" Sailor Venus waved off Moon's biting remark, but leaned into Rini and used a gloved hand to cover her mouth so Sailor Moon couldn't read her lips. I could read Venus's lips though _,_ as she told Rini "write that in your notes later."

"Dial it down a notch, Mina!" Sailor Jupiter was the next to take a stab at smoothing things over. "We know Logan's faithful! He's got more than enough willpower to resist the temptations of Stephanie!"

"What temptations?" Venus asked. _Oh no, not the twitching eyebrow..._

Sailor Jupiter obliviously raised a gloved hand and missed my subtle displays to get her attention so she wouldn't elaborate. "Well, she's right around Logan's age, so she's got maturity going for her! And I remember something from Logan's dream world about her being an honors student, so she's gotta be pretty smart too! Speaking of pretty, I would think she might be a Sailor Scout herself if we weren't all accounted for - "

"GGGRRR! THANKS A LOT!" Sailor Venus balled her hands into fists and held her arms straight down by her sides as if she were a soldier. _The last thing Mina needed right now was another reason for being insecure...  
_

"What's with your latest foot-in-mouth streak?" Sailor Mars teased Jupiter.

"Habit I picked up from the last guy I liked..." Sailor Jupiter buried her own face in one palm.

"POOR HELIOS!" Rini abruptly yelped his name, staring right at me as she did. "I completely forgot he wanted to talk to you!"

Rini unshouldered her red school backpack. After she unzipped it, I peeked inside and caught a glimpse of the adorned aqua and golden orb she used to communicate with him. _Sometimes I heard them whispering to each other at night, though I tried to respect their privacy. They were both looking to rekindle their friendship, make up for the time they lost._

"Hold up." Sailor Venus gently pressed down to cover the loose flap. "SHE might overhear us."

"But she might be the one Pegasus was trying to warn us about!" With Rini's insistence, Mina withdrew her objection and seconds later, Pegasus' miniature form was peeking at us through Rini's bag.

Pegasus cast a wary eye towards the other Sailor Scouts before he went on. "My intention was not to warn...but I was hoping to prepare Logan for the news."

"I'm so sorry I forgot!" Rini apologized to her winged friend.

"You forgot, huh?" _If there was one thing that was nearly as unsettling as manic Mina, it was watching Serena lapse into her destiny as Rini's future mother_. "Lost track of time lollygagging in COUPLE'S PARK?"

"As if setting priorities was ever YOUR strong suit!" Rini stuck her tongue out in defiance of her future mother. As she did often.

"Rini was helping me!" Mina raised a hasty defense for Rini, though even she began to wither when she was left facing down Sailor Moon's demanding stare. "With my, uh...DRY FEET!"

"EWWW! Sorry I asked!" A grossed out Sailor Moon backed off instantly. _I wasn't sure which I should facepalm over...Mina's lame excuse or Serena falling for it AGAIN._

"What I want to know is how Stephanie fits into this," Sailor Mercury posited. "Her timing can't be a coincidence."

"No, it wasn't. She meant to give me THESE." Hotaru showed everyone the stack of envelopes she had concealed within her jumper. "Apparently, my father's been writing to me but he didn't know my address."

"I hate to say this, Hotaru..." Sailor Mercury gently lowered her head. "But if the Shadows are behind this, those letters could be forgeries!"

"I think Mercury's right!" agreed Sailor Mars. "This smells like yet another Shadow bag of tricks to get us quarreling again!"

"Of course it's a trick if Amara and Michelle are involved!" Hotaru angrily snapped in the direction of the silent guardian. "The point is I haven't heard from my dad in years! I have no idea where he is, but Trista can call up Amara and Michelle whenever she likes?!"

"We never forbade you from speaking to your father, Hotaru!" A suddenly-distraught Sailor Pluto belted. "This was the first time I heard from Amara and Michelle since they were relieved of their duties as Sailor Guardians! Michelle contacted me about YOU, that was my only concern!"

"You said my dad was getting his life back together." Hotaru sniffled, though the rest of her face continued reflecting bitterness. "You let me think he was doing well, that he was getting his life back together."

"I...I did." _Regret...another emotion the Guardian of Time rarely expressed._ "Your father's mind was still broken when I came for you. I doubted he understood why I had to take you from him, or remembered our true identities. I sensed the distant threat to our Princess drawing near, and I knew we would need ALL of the Sailor Scouts if we stood any chance of repelling them. The three of us knew you were hurt by Small Lady's departure, and we doubted we could make your father understand. The three of us made a pact that we would remain focused on our mission...but I lost track of your father, and the cycle began again."

"And the Shadows have him now." Hotaru's eyes were fixed to the ground beneath her. ALL of the other girls had lowered their heads. _They had fought Queen Nehellenia and Galaxia together, yet Hotaru's dad - and the fact that she had lost touch with him - slipped past their notice._

Sailor Moon was the first to step forward and comfort Hotaru. "Why don't you and I step away for a bit?"

"You sure?" Rini asked Sailor Moon. "I never should have left - "

Sailor Moon emphatically shook her head. "I should have checked on Hotaru while you were away."

"I'm not upset with you," Hotaru told Sailor Moon. "I know you were missing Darien, and struggling with school."

"But that's not all of it," Sailor Moon admitted. "I don't even remember if I asked how your father was doing after he checked out of the hospital. I was a little selfish. Some things don't change with age, I guess."

Hotaru quietly nodded, consenting to Serena's offer of time apart. _I was proud of Serena, taking it on herself to cheer her up...how could I not admire her for that?_ Sailor Moon's transformation flashed away, and she walked Hotaru off as Serena.

Sailor Venus gently tapped my right shoulder. "I want you to go with them, Logan. The rest of us aren't Shadow targets. Sailor Moon and Saturn are."

"Please don't get the wrong idea, Venus..." From the corner of my eye, I noticed that Stephanie was beginning to stir. "...I'm not sure that would be a good idea."

"We'll keep Mina in line," Sailor Mars promised despite Venus' following pout. "But I'm worried about them too. We have strength in numbers, at least."

"And bring Trista with you!" blurted out Venus. Sailor Pluto stiffened like a rock while Venus shoved her directly beside me.

"Hotaru made it clear that I am the last person she wishes to see," Sailor Pluto conceded sadly.

"But just knowing you were there, keeping her safe...that's gotta count for something, right?" _I did find_ _Venus' words comforting...I even caught Sailor Pluto's head nodding slightly, as if she wanted to believe it._ I sensed something disingenuous about the entire thing. But Mars and the others were in agreement.  
 **  
**"Just...be gentle, OK?" I decided then and there to place myself in them. Pluto and I cast each other wordless, but visibly discomforted, glances as we were whisked off. _Mina's logic was sound...Serena and Hotaru WOULD need my help if the Shadows made a move. And maybe the fact the other Sailor Scouts didn't feel they had to have me there for security when Stephanie woke up was a good thing. I feared how visiting my dream world, seeing my past, may cloud their feelings towards present-day Stephanie...but the Sailor Scouts were always good-natured, and they still talked about trying to bring other Shadows around to their point of view. As loudly as my instincts screamed for me to go back and stay, I had to put my trust in them..._ **  
**

* * *

 _Stephanie_  
 _ **  
**_ _"Just...be gentle, OK?" That was Logan's voice...at least, I thought I heard his voice. Just trying to think led each individual brain cell of mine to cringe in agony. It was as if every thought echoed and pinged about my skull like a rabid pinball._

"Why send the Guardian of Time away?" _And there was Pegasus' voice...even if that brought me no closer to knowing whether I was hearing whispers from a dream, or if I was awakening from one.  
_

 _"We have to make this up to Hotaru and Logan. At least Sailor Moon will be safer with them."_ Next I heard a woman's voice, one I didn't recognize...but THOSE names reignited my consciousness and spurred me back to awakening.

The temptation to fall back to sleep gripped my mind when I opened my eyes to different sets of heeled shoes and boots alike... _styles I had recognized from Shadow briefings, combined with tidbits from what little news I had watched in high school._ My eyes slowly followed up their pale legs to four skirts reflecting different colors, then upwards to white leotards, and further on to various chest ribbons and starred chokers. I had to force my head up the rest of the way...my eyes were met by four twenty-something faces, all as unhappy to see me as if I had fallen from the sky and landed on their birthday cake. My once-dormant brain fully kicked in and dumped their names on my consciousness like a bucket of ice water. _Venus. Mars. Jupiter. Mercury. A fifth word came with recognizing them, but it's one that would have had my mom ordering me to wash my mouth out with soap and water._

"Well, well." Despite MERCURY being the water Scout, Venus' voice was the one dripping ice water. I couldn't help envying her long, straight golden hair flowing in the gentle wind... _no curls to worry about._ "The Wicked Witch of the West finally woke up!"

"I'm no Wicked Witch...although I feel like someone dropped a house on my head TWICE!" The room went spinning when I tried to prop myself off the ground. _Worse than the morning after Martina introduced me to beer pong at her thirteenth birthday party...not that I ever thought the moment was something to boast about._

"SUPER MOON CRISIS POWER!" I nearly fell backwards on my head another time when I heard Sailor Mini Moon's voice...and then the Sailor Scout in all-pink herself returned from the shadows. Confirming my earlier suspicions, Diana herself strutted alongside her true master. _And the kitten remembered my earlier refusal to coddle her...nothing hurt like having a deceptively cute little kitty paint crosshairs on you with her red eyes._

Sailor Mini Moon's eyes widened at my fearful reaction to seeing her again. _She hadn't matched my face with the Shadow from the hospital. At least I had that going for me, though I had to wonder why they were so adored by most of the public if they treated other strangers with THIS level of hostility. Sailor Mini Moon had one of the Space Time Keys that Alyssa needed to "borrow" to corroborate the Kinmokuan fugitive's story...but I dared not make a move while she was flanked by so many other Scouts. Besides, even if I somehow managed to snatch her key, we had no idea how to use it. Maybe it was a place to start...I wouldn't need to steal it if we could see eye-to-eye on at least one thing...  
_  
"You're not all about to introduce yourselves, are you?!" My nervous laugh betrayed whatever composure Alyssa would have wanted me to maintain in this situation. "We'd be here all day - "

"You know the only other people who don't appreciate our routines? SHADOWS!" Sailor Venus opened up with a growl. _And there's what Alyssa would call Sailor Scout logic._

"I promised him the rest of us would be in charge." The crimson-clad Sailor Scout pushed the big-mouthed blonde off to the side. "So lay off her a bit."

"You said something about making things up to Logan earlier. Did you mean that?" I asked with some hesitancy. _They may have started off using him, but...could the Sailor Scouts really have cared about him after all? Was there any chance that we might unravel the indoctrination pushing them to restore the Moon Kingdom at all costs?_

If there was any hope of the latter, Sailor Mars hid it behind harsh and sour eyes. "We know you've used him before. We're not giving you another chance to!"

 _Again...like Hotaru, they acted like they knew me from somewhere._ "Did...Logan talk about me before?"

"We found a couple things out on our own." The Sailor Scout in green evasively answered my questions. "We had a few things we wanted to say before we get to business."

"This is why you sent him away?" I heard Pegasus' echoing voice question their motives, just as I had back at the hospital, but his image was nowhere to be seen this time. _What kind of relationship did he have with them? They had turned to him for help in combat, yet he sounded more like their voice of reason. Though it also sounded like, more often than not, his words fell on deaf ears._

"Logan is so considerate and thoughtful..." Mars spoke with a much softer tone this time, even as she failed to address Pegasus' last question _._ "Even when you're the absolute worst to him, even when you kick him to the curb after he tries to help, he always comes back..."

 _That was true about him. I knew that myself. I had been warned the Sailor Scouts were expert manipulators, but Mars spoke as if she meant what she said._

"There aren't many people like him or Sailor Moon, yet they always look for the best in everyone," Sailor Jupiter added. Her voice rose in volume the further she continued, and the hostility they had shown me before crept back steadily. "But we know it only takes a few scumbags like your puppetmasters to destroy everything they're building!"

 _They must have meant Crystal Tokyo. That would mean the Shadows' allegation was true...Sailor Moon really was plotting to remake the world in her own image. But I couldn't believe Logan could know what they were planning and willingly climb aboard. That wasn't the Logan I knew. Whatever he may have said about me, they hadn't drowned, electrocuted, or incinerated me yet...that meant I still had a chance._ "Coming here was my choice. In fact, I'm probably going to be in a lot of trouble when I get back - "

"If you escaped from them, why would you want to go back to them? Nobody's asked you to spy for us!" Sailor Mini Moon asked with a judgmental tone.

"Wait! What if Doctor Tomoe hid some sort of distress code in the letters he sent Hotaru?" Sailor Mercury proposed. _She spoke with an opulent accent that distinguished her from the others._ "Too bad Hotaru took those letters with her, I could put them through a number of ciphers later!"

"The content of those letters, Mercury!" Sailor Jupiter argued. "They play right into what the Shadows have been trying to do with us since day one!"

"Tomoe had no ulterior motive!" I swore. "He started writing them years ago! Alyssa didn't even know he gave them to me - "

"You're on a first name basis with the lead Shadows?!" For all her earlier passive-aggressiveness, Sailor Venus was transparently shocked this time. All of them shared her bewildered look, as if they had been so sure I must be some kind of captive.

"Pardon us for being a little suspicious." Sailor Jupiter crossed her arms. _At least she was trying to maintain some measure of civility._ "We already caught that psycho skulking around what's left of the place Doctor Tomoe used to work, now you show up with his letters? Timing's a little convenient."

 _Alyssa was surely awake by now - and likely planning a long Svetlana tirade before dumping me back in the States - but hearing Sailor Jupiter blurt out that she was a menace still made my blood boil._ "She told me about your latest run-in. I can't compare him to the last Spymaster, but she's no villain!"

"Listen to me, Stephanie." Sailor Mercury raised a finger to one of her earrings, and a previously-invisible visor fizzled away from the top half of her face. "You've been brainwashed. The Shadows tried to do the same thing with my boyfriend and another friend of ours - "

"Alyssa never brainwashed me! And no, she didn't brainwash Tomoe either before you ask!" I snapped back defensively. Mercury's mouth remained hanging open.

"Please, just listen..." I finally got a glimpse of a miniature alicorn's peeking from inside a child-sized, burgundy-colored backpack. _It was Pegasus...albeit much smaller than before, somehow._ "This is getting out of hand."

"At least one of you is trying," I mumbled to myself. "I don't know what happened with your friend Melvin, but Alyssa ASKED us to work for her, and we said yes!"

All traces of emotions conflicting with each other drained from every single one of their faces. Now their blank stares matched their uniformity. _I stood there, nagged by the knowledge I had omitted PART of the truth to make my point. Doctor Tomoe didn't know the Sailor Scouts were our enemies, or that the daughter whose redemption he so desperately yearned for was one of them. If the Sailor Scouts had known that...  
_

"You said 'us'." Sailor Mars addressed me more bluntly this time. _She had caught my earlier slip._

"There's no hiding it now." _I'd have to watch my emotions more carefully in the future...if I still had one with the Shadows after today. But if I was destined to face retribution for today, at least I would know I tried to defuse the entire situation. I still had a chance to save Logan._ I closed my eyes and willed for the dark shards embedded deep within my skin to be fully visible...something I rarely wished for. _Not a single one of them, for all their misgiving towards me, had suggested I might be a Shadow myself. They were certain that I had been coerced somehow, as if they believed all Shadows were twisted beings concealing their faces beneath hoods. All except Logan, anyway. Maybe they just needed to see another human face underneath...  
_

"Stephanie..." Pegasus was the only one to respond, and not with the appraisal I had hoped for. Not a single pair of eyes were normally sized, and not a single mouth was left hinged. It was not as if I had expected everyone to join hands with me and sing right away...but every single one of them - from the tween in pink on one side to the Tower of Jupiter on the other - had backed away from me, as if they were about to run off screaming like Kindergartners.

"How could you do this to Logan?!" Sailor Venus cried out as if someone had stabbed her in the heart. "Seeing you under the mistletoe with him was bad enough, but you're actually one of the people who wants him DEAD?!"

"Under the mistletoe?! Okay...I don't know what you think happened back there, but I don't want to see him hurt any more than I want to believe you do!" _Under the mistletoe?! From a Sailor Scout?! What kind of relationship did Logan have with them?!_

"How can we believe anything you say to us now?!" Sailor Mercury's icy stare chilled whatever hadn't already been frozen by us standing outdoors. "Brainwashing, torture, kidnapping...what kind of person would defend what the Shadows do?!"

"She's not a real Shadow!" The kitten finally spoke up in a high-pitched voice. _The Shadows had told me to expect talking cats, but it was still unsettling to see._ "She's one of the impostors slandering our future King and Queen!"

"So what the Shadows said about Crystal Tokyo is true, too?!" The Sailor Scouts answered my question by narrowing their eyes. "I thought you might actually care what happens to Logan. Was Sailor Moon's ditzy little I-can-barely-control-my-own-team act part of her play to make everyone think she's a sweetheart?"

Sailor Venus pointed straight at me. "Now you're trash-talking our Moon Princess too! We didn't want it to go this far, but we won't stand for any of this!"

"This is NOT what Sailor Moon or Charon would want!" Pegasus' voice rang clearer than I had heard it before, even through his miniscule projection. "Mini Moon, talk them out of this! Please..."

Sailor Mini Moon kneeled down in front of her backpack. "This is for Logan and Hotaru, Pegasus. I'm sorry..." Mini Moon reached for the zipper and pulled the backpack shut over the unicorn's image.

Sailor Jupiter widened her legs and arms into a fighting stance. She balled her gloved hands into fists and sent electricity surging through them. "We're rescuing Doctor Tomoe and putting an end to Alyssa's reign of terror once and for all! You say he's one of your friends?! TELL US WHERE HE IS AND WE'LL ASK HIM OURSELVES!"

"I CAN'T! Alyssa's my friend too!" I willed my Shadow robes into form and made a dash for the treeline, but then I heard "Venus Love Chain Encircle!" Her chain whizzed past me and pulled a smaller tree down on top of me, tangling me in its branches.

"Shine Aqua Illusion!" A wave of ice water froze me in place before I could teleport away. The Sailor Scouts dashed around and leaped into the trees, watching my attempts to disentangle myself as if they were vultures circling in the skies above. The various twigs and branches held me firmly in place, as if nature itself were punishing me for every slight from every Shadow done to a Sailor Scout. _And for Logan...what Mars had said...he wasn't here now, and it was all my own fault..._

"No wonder Alyssa hate you!" I screamed as I tussled in vain to get away from them. "YOU'RE the ones hunting us but you still act like you're the victims in all this!"

"We were right to handle this ourselves!" hissed Sailor Mars. "Though after seeing the way you treated Logan for ourselves, we should have pegged you for being a full-fledged member of the bully brigade a lot sooner!

 _How could they have SEEN my past with Logan?!_ "Whatever you think you "saw", you don't know ANYTHING about me or Alyssa!"

"Oh yeah?" Sailor Mini Moon taunted me from her branch above. "I just remembered what your real name is! Sveti Yeti, hideous monster on the inside!"

 _Nothing stung like hearing a Sailor Scout - one I didn't want to hurt before - take the name that my mother had given me and spit it back at me as an insult._

"I think the name fits! The Shadows only see friendship as a big glowing weak spot!" Sailor Mars dripped extra venomous words on me from above. "So for Sailor Moon, Charon, and every other life the Shadows have ruined..."

"WE SHALL PUNISH YOU!"  
 **  
To Be Continued  
**

* * *

 **A/N:** (3/29 update) After receiving some early feedback, I realize I could have done a better job polishing the first half of the chapter and I tried to make the ending less heavy-handed...but I stand behind my premise. That was still a darker ending than even I had planned for, and I'm the one who wrote it! A friend recently asked me if the Sailor Scouts hated the Shadows. I answered no...but I'm beginning to doubt that myself. "Sveti Yeti" had been on the books for a while, though the "ugly on the inside" meaning of it only came with this chapter - it began as a light hearted, manic Mina moment! But her jealousy - and everyone else's insecurity over their past treatment of Logan/Hotaru's grief over losing her father - spiraled into something truly ugly...at least, in Stephanie's eyes. I had a method behind the madness though:

I did my research - I've been fortunate in that I still have DiC/Cloverway episodes to watch - all of them :) In fact, the whole premise of SoSM came with seeing the Sailor Scouts weren't the endlessly forgiving, naively compassionate all the time girls I tended to remember them through my nostalgia. They could be fairly inconsistent with their grief AND treatment of brainwashed (in this case, "brainwashed") enemies. I found this was true with the original Japanese version too - Usagi's determination to destroy Katarina, healing her only after Minako BEGGED Usagi to spare her, comes to mind right away. Even going into the rough draft of this chapter, I doubted that the girls could become fully hostile towards Stephanie. But on a hunch, I went back to episodes near the end of first season and found the Sailor Scouts bashing Endymion as a "traitor" even though they knew he was brainwashed! I remembered another clip, where Uranus and Neptune challenged the Sailor Moon's right to lead at the end of S...the Inner Scouts transformed and readied up to take them on in battle for "trash-talking our Moon Princess." It was Sailor Moon who talked them down...but without their moral compass to guide them, or Logan and Hotaru to make it clear their treatment of Steph wasn't what they wanted, the rest of the Inner Scouts and Mini Moon descended to a point they wouldn't listen to Pegasus. And that has roots in canon too...I just couldn't see Logan in the same position, and sadly Pegasus is a whole lot easier for the girls to shut out.

Logan's scene came from wanting to show the Sailor Scouts' descent...and maybe leave things open to a matter of perspective? Stephanie, as I hope I've shown, is not as adept at interpreting faces and emotions the way Logan and Alyssa are. It's the main narrative difference between their styles: Stephanie is better at honing on the smaller details while Logan focuses on the bigger picture. I know some of the Scouts' lines may have been just vicious - especially that group routine that came about in the final draft - but I wanted to show where they were coming from. The one I felt most strongly about was Raye telling her how she felt about Logan: that line may have been directed towards Stephanie, but I also think she was talking about herself there. Logan kept coming back to the Sailor Scouts, for all the mistrust and accusations they threw at him at the beginning (especially Raye).

I hate leaving you on such a cliffhanger, but I hope you'll keep the discussion going in the meantime...was the Sailor Scouts' distrust of Stephanie justified, or have they taken it too far this time?


	12. Monsters Inside and Out

**Chapter 12: Monsters Inside and Out**  
 _  
 **Logan**_

"This is the third time you've looked back since we left." Trista's casual observance was preceded by a dim light from the frozen tree behind me as she set aside her Sailor Scout outfit. She emerged in one of the usual stuffy business suits I always saw her wearing. _I wouldn't be surprised if she had one for sleeping, too._ Trista followed my line of sight, peering off at the Sailor Scouts off in the distance. Venus' head bobbed as she talked with Sailor Mars, though obscured through the trees, she was too far away to give away what she was saying. While I could not read her lips, her body language was transparent: her arms swung across each other as Venus and the other Scouts fixed their heads on the same spot.

I refocused on Hotaru's back as Serena led her deeper into the park. I shook my head and recalled why Mina asked me to go with them: "Raye's there to keep Mina from flying off the handles. Even if she IS jealous, they said they want to give the Shadows a chance. It's what Serena wants." I resigned not to look back at Venus and the other Scouts...but Trista lingered a while longer before following at a distance.

"Her word might be enough for THEM." I pivoted towards Trista without a second thought - _any hint my loyalties were_ _being called into question AGAIN still touched a nerve -_ but Trista's face remained rock solid as she maintained a steady pace, eventually passing by me."Pity that your more introspective, vastly more agreeable past self did not maintain dominance over your personality...but you remember what it means to fight a war. Misplaced compassion can have dire consequences...I might be a Sailor Scout, but my station at the Door of Space and Time bars me from showing intruders leniency."

"I heard you didn't recognize Sailor Moon the first time she appeared at the Space-Time Door. If Rini hadn't shown up..." I halted to let Serena and Hotaru put some more space between us, as I still didn't want to tip them off that we were following them. _And to ponder Trista's real intentions._ "You're not asking me a question though, are you Puu?"

Trista stretched the fingers of her right hand open as if it were a crab's claw... _with the matching facial expression_. "Unless you wish to introduce the back of your head to my Garnet Rod, NEVER call me Puu!"

"Fine...though if you don't want me borrowing Rini's nicknames, maybe you shouldn't pilfer my girlfriend's names for me either?" I smirked.

"I have no say over what Rini wants me to call you in private!" _Any louder and the pair in front of us would have overheard Trista's snake-like hissing. Subtlety really wasn't ANY of the Sailor Scouts' traits._ "You want to complain to the future Princess? Be my guest!"

"So, you and Rini have private conversations about me?" I asked more gently.

"So, the Inner Scouts' recent bout of complacency IS contagious! Hence you need to ask me!" mocked Trista.

"No, I was respecting Rini's privacy. Though now that I know she's taking advantage..."

I cut myself short when Serena and Hotaru stopped at one of the few stalls that had remained open, despite of the accumulating snow shuttering most amusements. Serena gleefully grabbed a pair of bento boxes from the man behind the station. Serena passed one box to Hotaru, then grabbed a toothpick from one side of her container and stuck a meatball on the other.

"Of course, Serena's plan for cheering up Hotaru involves food," I sighed. _Classic Serena, stuffing her face without a care for who might be staring, as usual_. Angling my head for something else to look at, I caught sight of another bystander braving the cold.

Despite splitting my attention between the mystery passerby and the other two, I did notice Trista taking a step back. "Perhaps I should give them a wider berth. You are...more adept at this than I."

 _It was a good thing I wasn't chowing down with Serena when Trista said that...I would have choked._ I felt a pang of sorrow for Trista, but I was becoming unnerved by the figure in the winter coat watching Serena. _Sure, she wasn't doing her any favors, planting herself and Hotaru in front of the stand as she enjoyed what must have been her forth meal of the day...but our mystery guest would have shooed her off by now if she was really looking for a bite to eat_. "Charon," Trista resumed, "I appreciate you did not ask about Hotaru earlier - "

"Hold that thought," I motioned for Trista to drop her voice, just as the bystander's gray winter jacket subtly gave way to dark blue Shadow robes silhouetting her figure...

"Alyssa..." Her name escaped my lips as the silver strands of hair flying past her now-thinner hood cleared all last traces of doubt. My own Shadow robes sprang into form that same instant and Sailor Pluto raised her periwinkle rod towards the sky.

"PLUTO CRYSTAL POWER!" Alyssa, along with Serena and Hotaru, caught sight of the final Guardian announcing her presence to everyone close by. The brief distraction was enough for me to close the distance with Alyssa, slamming her between adjacent stalls and into a massive oak with a forward magically-propelled charge. But the instant Alyssa's back landed against the bark, a dark violet cloud of smoke erupted in her hands and encased both of us.

"CHARON!" I caught a rare hint of concern erupt from Pluto's voice as she called my name... _though maybe her intention was to preempt Hotaru or Serena from calling it first, in case Alyssa still did not recognize them as civilians._ But the thick smokescreen that escaped from Alyssa's hand rushed into my lungs and left a sticky residue inside before escaping with each labored cough of mine, blocking me from answering. With Alyssa's silhouette visible through the smoke, I noticed she had enough foresight to cover her mouth with her neckline, though she was coughing hard as well...

I seized on the brief opportunity to crawl away on my hands and knees at the same moment Alyssa stumbled out of her own smog. _I hadn't been Alyssa's target, at least not this time...she was here for the Sailor Scouts._ I coughed up discolored phlegm as the smoke finally cleared up, but I felt something rise out of the muck behind me. I shuddered to think that the same dark violet ooze molding itself on the sidewalk, as if it were putty being sculpted by invisible hands, had taken a side trip through my own lungs. At first, the bile took the shape of a humanoid alien with slits for nostrils and oval eyes, but its upper body pulsed and convulsed until it resembled that of a werewolf: massive biceps, jaws lined with knives fully sharpened, and glowing red slits for eyes. But as menacing as its top half was, its legs were comically undersized to the point it stumbled backwards and was landed on its rear.

"BLEH! YUCKY PURE HEART!" The malformed monster's immature words and lack of response to the rest of the world betrayed its booming voice and menacing appearance. But Alyssa seized on the other Scouts' brief distraction and grabbed Hotaru with a lightning-fast swoosh.

"HOTARU!" Serena cried out after them. Hotaru screamed at the top of her lungs and raised both arms raised Serena's way while Alyssa carried her off past the treeline. Serena flailed her limbs about, taking off with reckless abandon, before yelling back at me and Pluto "I've gotta transform!"

"Go! I can handle this!" Sailor Pluto ordered me after I expelled what mucus remained in my lungs with one more coughing fit. _We had gotten wise to the extensive use of dark magical smoke used by Tithon's cell...Alyssa kept trying to change things up to keep us on our toes._

The dark violet half-werewolf's blank stare at Sailor Pluto as she egged me on assured me that she COULD handle this on her own. Serena cried out "Super Moon Crisis Power!" ahead of me and I caught up with Sailor Moon mid-sprint as we both chased after Alyssa. After transforming, she was able to keep the pace with me. _Of course, Serena could always run with the right motivation...though the only other two things I knew that could make her run this fast were "idol in the park" and "ice cream truck!"_

A single piercing violet eye darting back at us found Sailor Moon and I closing the gap. Alyssa kept weaving through the trees to break our line of sight and vanishing with the occasional wisp of a teleport to break us off her tail. Alyssa's teleport was still only effective at short range, and a few well-timed blinks of my own left me within jumping range of Alyssa. Just when my hands were mere inches away from Hotaru's dazed head, Alyssa retrieved a trio of silver-colored orbs from beneath her robes, dropping them behind herself in a wide spread. All three orbs flew right past me, but I knew Sailor Moon was destined to stumble into them when I saw where they landed...

"SAILOR MOON!" I broke off my pursuit to teleport behind Sailor Moon before she charged headlong through the bursting pods. I yanked her clear back ribbon to pull her back into the snow with me.

I saw the question "WHY?!" flash in her eyes as I cupped my left hand firmly over her mouth and nose while covering my own, but her shutting eyelids banished her confusion when we were engulfed in the same mist. Sticky, leg-like saps burrowed through the snow below to anchor the dispersal orbs as they exposed the organic pod-shaped eggs inside. Sailor Moon opened her eyes in time to witness three naga-like serpents rise out of the primordial ooze ahead of us. Like the first monster that ambushed us, all three appeared incomplete. Two of them had woefully undersized arms that reminded me of a T-Rex, while the third had massive biceps with sharp clawed hands.

"NO PURE HEARTS. DADA SAYS NO-NO..." Sailor Moon's eyes were glued to the dull-witted monster speaking in a low, beckoning tone.

"CAN'T EAT PURE HEARTS," mumbled the other one.

"They actually sound cute," Sailor Moon giggled after enough smoke cleared for us to catch our breaths. "Maybe they'll let us walk by - "

"SKIRT LADY HURTS MOMMY!" Sailor Moon and I both flinched at the naga-like creature's voice thundering an interruption.

"YOU BAD! MOMMY SAYS!" agreed its small-armed 'twin'.

"OK, NOT SO CUTE!" Sailor Moon retracted and backed away. _Alyssa and Hotaru were nowhere in sight, but I could pick up their trail later. Alyssa wasn't going to hurt an innocent girl, and even if she knew Hotaru was Sailor Saturn, I saw no hint Alyssa had rescinded Tithon's vow the Shadows had no intention of destroying the Sailor Scouts. That guarantee didn't extend to their latest creations, though..._

"SMASH YOU!" The armed monster raised its massive biceps in the air and brought them down on Sailor Moon...only to go completely splat after Sailor Moon leaped out of the way and its hands slammed against the solid ground instead. Sailor Moon's eyes flashed momentary disbelief that such an intimidating monster had wiped itself out. One of the others flew towards me with unhinged jaws, and met a similar end when it collided with the tree behind me instead.

"Moon Tiara Magic!" Sailor Moon's tossed her frisbee of light at the third and final monster when it lurched towards her, disintegrating it instantaneously. It may have seemed like overkill, but I couldn't help feeling relieved: _I had little experience with nonhuman opponents as Charon, and zero fighting them in the present day._ Sailor Pluto's emerald hair fluttered in the air as she caught up to us.

"Logan, thanks for your help, but how will we find Hotaru?!" Sailor Moon cried in exasperation. I pointed to the footprints Alyssa had left in the snow. _If anything, letting Alyssa THINK we lost her would make tracking her easier._ I heard Sailor Moon whimper when her footsteps led into a blanket of snow, but I picked up her latest set a couple of feet away from ours.

"These monsters bear only trace resemblances to the Heart Snatchers we battled five years ago, but I doubt she could have recreated them without Tomoe's direct involvement," Sailor Pluto commented on the way. Again, I could sense Moon's frustration when Alyssa's footprints led us into a collective mound of numerous sets, all leading in different directions... _but the snow had nearly filled in most of them. There were only two pairs made recently..._ _  
_  
"One leads back into the city," Sailor Moon pointed out. "Maybe Hotaru made a break for it?"

I shook my head. "No, these are too big to be hers. But Alyssa's not dragging a screaming child into the street. There's a reason she left Hotaru awake." _Alyssa hadn't gone far...if I were her, the best place to hide would be right under the Sailor Scouts' noses, let them fan out in search of me..._

Scratch marks, likely Hotaru clawing the trees as Alyssa carried her off, validated I had chosen the right pair to follow. Soon enough, we heard Hotaru's muffled voice squealing behind Alyssa's hand...

"You found her, Logan!" I couldn't help smiling when I felt Sailor Moon pat the back of my shoulder. The three of us crept up behind a robed back facing us, pinning the raven-haired child against an oak tree. "Wish we had backup."

"Better they remain with Stephanie," Sailor Pluto reminded her. _I was sure she was awake by now...hopefully their talk was going well_ _. I had to trust the other Inner Scouts wouldn't just see her as another Shadow...or hold her past against her. I had to trust Stephanie too: that she'd see what I saw in the Sailor Scouts._ "We can take her, Sailor Moon."

"Alright," Sailor Moon nodded quietly. "Guess you've got the high ground, Charon?"

"RELAX!" Alyssa hissed a whisper to Hotaru after I recognized that Alyssa WAS standing under a branch that could support my weight. "I won't hurt you. I just needed to get you away from the Sailor Scouts for a minute." Alyssa released her hand from Hotaru's mouth after the girl's whimpering had ceased. "I'm just looking for a friend of mine."

"I'm looking for someone too." _Hotaru had decided to play along...but only to an extent, as her scowl was self-evident._

"Alright..." _I caught a faint tremble in Alyssa's voice...carefully hidden, but she realized something was amiss._ "I heard my friend went looking for you. I went by your house and your friends said she came to meet you in park."

"Those two aren't my friends anymore!" From above, I saw Hotaru's eyes swing to Sailor Moon hiding behind the trees. _Hotaru realized we were there to rescue her, and now she was drawing Alyssa's full attention before she realized she had company_ _...though Hotaru risked treading on thin ice with keeping her identity a secret._ "And I doubt Stephanie was ever yours to begin with!"

Hotaru's distraction paid off: Alyssa reacted to my shadow descending upon her at the very last second. She barely managed to roll out of the way once I pounced on her, but she wasn't fast enough to avoid the business end of Sailor Pluto's Garnet Rod. Pluto only managed to land a glancing blow on Alyssa, but the loud clank that followed served as a firm warning never to call her 'Puu'. Hotaru ran straight into Sailor Moon's arms, a move that left Sailor Pluto looking rather hurt.

With Hotaru's safety assured, Sailor Moon didn't waste a second jumping into her routine before Alyssa recovered from her daze. "As if your cult of wizard ninjas wasn't menacing enough - "

"Don't say wizard ninjas!" I groaned...realizing I was a bit too loud when my unintentional request was answered with a bitter glare from Sailor Moon herself.

"I'M NOT DONE YET, CHARON!" Sailor Moon made her disdain for interruptions doubly clear before she recollected herself. "Anyway, ALYSSA, how dare you drag us back down nostalgia lane by flinging test tube terrors at us! I am - "

"Sailor Moon, Sailor Pluto, love and justice, blah blah blah! WE ALREADY MET!" Alyssa yelled that last part in particular... _two meetings with Sailor Moon and she was already grating on Alyssa's nerves_. _Now Serena would never let me forget I kept her from finishing her skit!_

"You missed one..." Sailor Moon and Pluto's jaws dropped - and I nearly fell over backwards myself - when Hotaru brazenly raised her arm in the air. "I'm not afraid of you, Alyssa! SATURN CRYSTAL POWER!"

All the concealing magic from the old Moon Kingdom couldn't hide Alyssa's shock. "You're Tomoe's daughter...damnit, Tithon! If you had just told me!"

"Messing with our families was HIS first mistake." With grim words, Sailor Saturn appeared in Hotaru's place, wielding her fearsome scythe by her side. "As Sailor Saturn - "

This time, it was the sound of a tree collapsing in the distance that ended Sailor Saturn's introduction early. Alyssa motioned towards the sound of the noise, but before she could jump on the opportunity to escape, I charged forward and tackled her into the tree straight ahead.

"Stephanie's safe and sound with the rest of us!" Sailor Moon pleaded one more time as I strained to keep Alyssa pinned down. "We'll take you to her and you'll see we're not out to get every Shadow!"

"SHINE AQUA ILLUSION!" _That was Sailor Mercury's voice, coming from the direction of the fallen tree! Her voice was faint, but there was no doubt she was nearby._ The others heard her too, casting each other uncertain looks as they stood guard over Alyssa.

"Drop one of your pods?" Sailor Pluto asked Alyssa in a condescending tone, pointing the Garnet Orb towards Alyssa's chest in case she did break free of my grip. Alyssa wordlessly shook her head and tossed aside an empty pouch with the insignia of her Shadow cell. _She was showing us she had no more pods to spare...besides, if the other monsters were as underdeveloped as the ones we faced, they wouldn't have caused THIS much of a ruckus._

A chill ran down my spine when Pluto's question was followed by Stephanie's voice screaming _"NO WONDER ALYSSA HATES YOU!"_ She was still barely audible, but the terror in her voice brought all five of us to silence. _I knew Alyssa's monsters never could have scared her that much. There was only one thing that could have provoked such a harsh reaction from Stephanie..._

Alyssa managed to flip me over while I was distracted by Stephanie's next shout: _"YOU'RE the ones hunting us but you still act like you're the victims in all this!"_ That removed any doubt that Stephanie was talking to the other Sailor Scouts _...but why had Mercury called out an attack?_ While I struggled with my thoughts, my legs racing behind Alyssa but my mind racing somewhere else, Sailor Saturn leaped into the air and wordlessly fired an energy wave from her Glaive. Her Press Crusher blast was smaller than one I had seen her unleash when she called out her attack, but it was strong enough to knock Alyssa to the ground when it struck the ground beneath her.

Just when I heard Sailor Mars yell something about a _"bully brigade,"_ Sailor Saturn brandished the sharpened tip of her Silence Glaive to warn Alyssa to stay put. I tried to keep my attention focused on our captive, not the scene playing out close by. _We just needed to corral Alyssa towards the other Sailor Scouts, then we could handle her and Stephanie as a group._ But even Sailor Saturn flinched when Sailor Mini Moon's voice was the next to spit out a taunt: " _I just remembered what your real name is! Sveti Yeti, hideous monster on the inside!"_

"RINI?!" Sailor Saturn's cold demeanor fell apart in an instant as poor Hotaru's voice squeaked through her lips instead. _I couldn't believe it either...Rini, how could you say something like that?_ Alyssa seized on Saturn's moment of distraction, flipping over to kick Sailor Saturn in the side of her leg just below the knee. _That blow might have crippled her if Alyssa had aimed any higher or if Hotaru weren't in Sailor Scout form_...thankfully, a quick look back showed Saturn balancing fine after another successive tackle saw me atop Alyssa once again. _She was fighting to get back to Stephanie herself...Steph WAS her p_ _rotégé, just like I had been Tithon's_ _. The Shadows I led were mostly solitary by nature, working in pairs rarely and larger teams under the most extraordinary circumstances. Training was one of the few exceptions where intimate relationships between Shadows had a chance to blossom..._

"You only see friendship as a big glowing weak spot!" Sailor Mars' taunt rang the loudest of all. I watched Sailor Pluto's eyes warn Sailor Moon not to run after the others to find out what was going on. _But Sailor Mars' speech was beginning to sound more and more like one of the Sailor Scouts' routines before they wiped out an enemy._ "So for Sailor Moon, Charon, and every other life the Shadows have ruined..."

"Mars, no!" I heard Sailor Moon mouth a quiet plea... _but now wasn't a time for silence_. _We had to get Alyssa there NOW, somebody had to see what was going on, even if what I thought I was hearing couldn't possibly be happening..._

"WE SHALL PUNISH YOU!" I could feel Mars' fiery hand plunge into my chest and tear my heart out when I heard them all swear revenge in unison. _Mercury...Jupiter...Venus...Mini Moon...WHAT WERE YOU DOING?!_

Choking on every breath I took from there on out, I'd forgotten I was even holding Alyssa until I heard her chortle on the ground. "Trustworthy people don't ask you to trust them."

"N-no, this isn't what it sounds like!" Sailor Moon whimpered. But one cackle was enough to hint that Alyssa wasn't sticking around for a report. Absent-minded as I was, Alyssa escaped my grasp with an easy teleport. I raced after her, but it wasn't the leader of Stephanie's cell of Shadows I was chasing anymore. I was chasing after Raye, and Mina, and Rini...Lita and Amy too. _Serena had to be right, this had to be some kind of misunderstanding..._ but when I emerged from the forest behind Alyssa, when I saw the Sailor Scouts gloating from the branches above Stephanie as she tussled with branches pinning her under a collapsed tree... _one the SAILOR SCOUTS had collapsed on her..._ I saw they had betrayed my trust.

"Sveti's bully buddy is here!" When I heard Venus adopt Rini's cruel nickname for Stephanie, I felt the muscles in my arms grow tense. With Sailor Moon and the others rushing to catch up with me, and words trapped behind my dry throat, there was no one to speak out when Stephanie broke free of her natural entrapment, those dark blue coattails of her Shadow uniform trailing behind her as she ran...with Sailor Mars and Venus chasing after her.

"NO!" The words just barely managed to break past my vocal chords. Mars and Venus were too far away by then, but Mini Moon looked down on me from the branches while Jupiter and Mercury - who had descended from the tree tops to tussle with Alyssa - stopped to glance at me. "GET BACK HERE, DAMNIT!" I screamed towards Mars and Venus a second time, vain as it was.

"MINI MOON!" Sailor Moon caught up in time to scream Rini's name when Alyssa suddenly charged into the one otherScout that wasn't going after a Shadow. Sailor Moon and I both ran to catch her future daughter, but Alyssa slammed the poor girl into a frozen bush with bone-shattering force. Alyssa emerged from the bushes just as Jupiter and Mercury had dropped down to face her. Alyssa threw one of her flashbang-like dark magical smoke charges to stun them while she flipped over Mercury and kicked Jupiter in the stomach before chasing after Stephanie.

Sailor Moon ran into the bushes towards her future daughter's crying form, but Sailor Pluto pressed between us and reached Mini Moon first. "Saturn went after your girlfriend and Sailor Mars," Pluto informed me while she tended to Small Lady.

 _Girlfriend. It felt like such a hollow word to throw around now._ With Rini in good hands, I shook Sailor Moon's shoulder. "Serena...I need you to talk sense to the others. Please." Sailor Moon gave me a wordless nod, and followed me in Mars' general direction.

"Mars Celestial Fire Surround!" Sailor Mars gave away Stephanie's direction by setting a line of trees ablaze. _She was cutting off Stephanie's path of escape...but how far were the other Scouts willing to go to catch her?!_

"STOP!" Sailor Saturn had caught up with the overzealous pair before Sailor Moon and I did. "MARS! VENUS! SAILOR MOON AND CHARON SAID THAT'S ENOUGH!"

I saw Venus and Mars standing in place when Sailor Moon and I came across from the line of fire Mars had called down to contain Stephanie. I just couldn't bring myself to look at either of the other two Scouts. I chose to focus on their shoes instead, even as my ears honed in on the footsteps of the other Sailor Scouts falling into a formation behind us...but I could feel Stephanie's eyes zeroing in on me.

""Meet the others before you decide who to believe?!"" Stephanie bitterly repeated what I had said to earlier over Mars and Venus' shoulders. "LOOK WHERE THAT GOT US, LOGAN!"

Sailor Venus hissed through her teeth: "Don't even try to - "

"SHUT UP!" I screamed. I felt EVERYONE, except maybe Stephanie, take a step back. Fear shimmered through Sailor Venus and Mars' eyes when I did bring myself to look at them. "Just stay out of this!"

Alyssa swung around the Sailor Scouts in a wide arc and grabbed Stephanie by her robed arm. "I don't wanna hear another peep from you either! You don't realize how much your goodwill escapade has cost us!"

"Stephanie!" Sailor Saturn held her polearm by the middle with a single hand in a non-threatening stance. "We don't have to be enemies. You're a much nicer person than the other Shadows who terrorized us!"

Stephanie lowered her hood so that we could see her face... _and her lackluster attempts to present an expressionless composure throughout_. "I tried having it both ways, Hotaru. I thought I could be Miss Popular and still have Logan as an actual friend on the side, but the rotten band of fakers won. I can't turn my back on the Shadows now, knowing what Sailor Moon's planning for Earth, and knowing her bully brigade thinks I'm some kind of Shadow call girl!"

"You are not a Shadow yet, SVETLANA," Alyssa corrected her harshly. _I knew she must have been pissed to make that admission in front of the Sailor Scouts._ "And whether you'll EVER become one after today is subject to a very lengthy discussion!"

"In spite of all that's happened, letting either of you walk away from here is still out of the question!" Sailor Pluto raised her Garnet Rod back to fighting position. _If it wasn't plain to everyone before, Stephanie had made it crystal clear: becoming a Shadow was something she WANTED._

Alyssa shrugged, undaunted by Pluto's threat. "Since we're being so honest with each other, I've gotta come clean about something myself. I was only pretending I used up the last of these..." Two silver monster pods appeared in each of Alyssa's hands, and with another flick she tossed all four of them down at our feet.

"RUN!" I yelled just before the telltale dark violet smokescreen blackened the forest, undaunted by the lingering flames in the trees underneath. _The Sailor Scouts all listened to me THAT time._ Four more disproportionately-shaped monsters rose from the muck, groaning and moaning in the Sailor Scouts' general direction.

"EVIL SPIRITS...DISPERSE!" Sailor Mars had raised a fan of quadruple scrolls with kanji lettering and threw them in an arc towards Alyssa's creations.

"THAT WON'T WORK!" Sailor Jupiter blurted out...but she was forced to eat her words when one of Mars' scrolls decapitated the monster directly in front of her, while each of the other three sliced a limb off their targets. With one final moan, all four monsters split in half and melted back into ooze, with all four scrolls fluttering on top of the snow where each of them once stood.

"I...take it back," Sailor Jupiter muttered in disbelief. Sailor Mars stood in place with her arm still extended, her bewildered face giving away her own shock that she had taken down four menacing creatures - not through her magical ability, but by papercut.

"Rini, you're hurt!" Sailor Saturn called Mini Moon out when she noticed the Scout in pink forced to lean on Pluto's shoulder after nearly keeling over. "That was a terrible fall. I can make it better."

While Sailor Mercury put out the last of the flames with Shine Aqua Illusion, Sailor Saturn bent on one knee to help keep Mini Moon on her feet. _I heard that Rini used to be much shorter than Hotaru, but now the difference was a meager few inches. Sailor_ Mini Moon was indeed limping as Sailor Saturn carted her off.

"Logan." I froze when Sailor Mars called my name, just as I began following Sailor Saturn. _I didn't know what I would say to Mina..._ _I'd rather be with Hotaru than any of the Inner Scouts - besides Sailor Moon - right now._ Sailor Mars' voice was softer than usual, but her own dark eyes gave away no hint of shame. "I'm sorry you had to find out about Stephanie the way you did."

"And that's all you have to be sorry for?!" The anger that I had briefly suppressed in light of Alyssa's surprise attack and concern for Rini began simmering again. Sailor Jupiter and Venus stood wordlessly behind Mars, while Sailor Mercury avoided the situation and preoccupied herself with the scene of Alyssa's flight.

"I didn't lie to you before, Logan." Sailor Mars insisted, her voice torn between pleading and telling. "Things...got out of hand."

Sailor Moon strode up beside me and swept her hand in the direction of the suppressed fire. "But how did it come to THIS, Raye? First we hear you threatening Stephanie, then you nearly start an inferno trying to catch her?!"

"You're exaggerating and you know it, Serena!" Sailor Mars let loose. "I was trying to avoid hurting her!"

"Yeah? Well, it sounds to me like you did that anyway!" I snarled back at her.

I saw another glow from the direction where Sailor Saturn had taken Mini Moon. _Arguing with them now would take us nowhere...maybe Rini could paint a better picture for me._ Without another word, I rubbed Sailor Moon's shoulder to excuse myself and brushed past Sailor Mars.

"Start from the top, you guys," Sailor Moon asked of the others before I left them behind. _  
_

* * *

"Hotaru, please! You've helped enough already!" Rini was there sitting on the ground across from Hotaru once I found them.

"You don't have to worry about me passing out, Rini." Hotaru smiled and refused to lower her glowing palm. _It was a sight to withhold, seeing Rini's bruised and darkened skin gradually receding._

"Was anything broken, Rini?" I asked, kneeling on the ground beside her and Hotaru.

"Yes, but she's almost good as new!" Hotaru glimmered... _but I knew Hotaru wasn't trying to pretend that nothing had happened. Hotaru's eyes were fighting to keep the questions at bay until the right moment came. She had the exact same thing in mind that i did..._

"Really Hotaru, I feel much better now!" Rini insisted...although her left hand immediately reached for her forehead once Hotaru's healing light dissipated. "Just a headache, not something your powers can really help me with."

"Stephanie must have had a pretty bad headache when she woke up, too," I commented. Rini's eyes fell away to the side the moment I brought up Stephanie.

"There is something I wanted to ask you about, Rini." _Hotaru was pressing on with me._ "We both heard what you called Stephanie. I know things got heated back there, but why would you say that?"

"I..." _Now Rini was looking away from Hotaru too._ "I don't know, it just slipped out."

"That's not what it sounded like, Rini!" I said more pointedly.

Rini brought her shuddering eyes upon me...though she looked to my chest instead of my face. _She knew she had gone directly against how I asked her and the other Sailor Scouts to treat Stephanie, and she knew I was angry at them_ _._ "She knows where the Shadows have your dad, Hotaru! But she wouldn't tell us!"

"How does calling her a hideous monster help us find my dad?!" Hotaru raised her voice. "Rini, you sounded just like the kids at school who used to bully me! How could you think that either of us WANTED you to treat someone else like that?!"

"It's not like she was completely innocent!" Rini finally let loose on her best friend, _saying the exact same thing Mina did earlier._ "You saw the way she treated Logan - "

"THIRTEEN YEARS AGO, RINI!" Rini recoiled after I raised my voice at her too. "You said YOU'RE not exactly thrilled about how you used to act up, too!"

"But how do we know whether Stephanie's changed or not?" Rini pleaded for me to see her side of it. "She was a total two-face, Logan!"

"You didn't even try getting to know her!" Hotaru stood and rolled her hands into fists, perhaps to draw attention away from the tears in her eyes. "Face it, Rini: you weren't thinking about me OR Logan when you said that! You only brought up Stephanie's past because you WANTED to hurt her feelings! That's what a bully does, and if that's what you are now, then I don't want to be friends with you anymore!"

"HOTARU, WAIT! HOTARU COME BACK!" Rini broke down in tears herself after Hotaru brushed past Sailor Pluto to escape into the park. As Trista approached, Rini fled into her arms and wailed for her lost friend. Mina emerged from behind Trista...she cast a sorrowful eye towards Rini, but shifted a less sympathetic gaze towards me.

"Mina..." While Rini had been scared to look at me, Mina did not share the same fear of disappointing me or any hint of remorse. Her face was as scrunched up as it had been the first time she saw me with Stephanie. "I shouldn't have told you to shut up. I'm sorry."

"I get why you're mad at me and Raye." Mina's face became slightly less tense, but she took another look at her mentee and crossed her arms. "But taking it out on Rini, Logan? I thought she was your best friend too, but you let Hotaru roll over her like she's some playground bully!"

""Sveti Yeti" sounds like something a playground bully would come up with!" Rini's whimpering grew louder when she heard her say that. _I wished Rini hadn't heard me...I hated seeing her hurt but what she said to Stephanie just wasn't right._

"You think I don't have any sympathy for...STEPHANIE because I've never been called names before?!" Mina's facial lines tightened again. "MY classmates kept calling me the bland, stuck-up blonde that tries too hard to look like Sailor V! These days, my best friends tell me that even my ex-Spymaster boyfriend can't lie to my face and tell me I'm not crazy!"

"Well, I just saw you drop Stephanie on her head while she was unconscious. So I'm sorry, Mina...I can't," I shrugged back at her.

"FINE! HEY EVERYONE, GUESS WHAT?! LOGAN THINKS I'M CUCKOO-LICIOUS!" Mina reinforced her point by twirling her pointer finger beside her head while screaming loud enough so all of Tokyo might hear her. "So you and Serena can drop me off at the almond house later!"

"You mean nuthouse?" I couldn't help asking. Over her shoulder, I saw that Rini and Trista had spread apart. _Rini was rummaging through her outfit as if she was searching for something._

"WHATEVER!" Mina drew me back in with a screech just as Trista inched her way towards us. "But don't make this whole thing out to be Rini's fault!"

"I'll gladly loan them my car to drop you off later, but right now we have a bigger problem!" While Trista pulled the two of us aside, I saw Rini take off in Sailor Moon's direction. "Small Lady just realized her Space-Time Key is missing!"

"What?!" Mina's eyes grew even wider than they had while we were arguing. "Could she have just dropped it?"

"Small Lady guards that key with her life." I could hear the other Sailor Scouts beginning to rummage about the park as Trista paused for a breath. "I have a spare if she needs one, but we had better hope that key hasn't fallen into the hands of the Shadows. Amethyst used the last one they had to attack Crystal Tokyo."

I reached for Mina's shoulder before she turned her back on me. "I need to talk to Sailor Moon."

"Yeah..." Mina's earlier fire had evaporated from her eyes. _Likely from exhaustion...as had mine_. "I...guess we'll talk later?"

I answered with a curt nod, taking care to avoid tripping over the other Sailor Scouts searching around for Rini's key. "Sailor Moon!"

I noticed Jupiter and Mercury also looking my way, but I planted my eyes firmly towards the approaching Moon Princess. They took the hint and resumed eyeballing the ground. _Exhaustion had also drained the color from Sailor Moon's face...she hadn't gotten far with the others either._

"I take it you heard about Rini's key?" Sailor Moon's voice cracked, a hint that she had just ended a heated exchange with the other Sailor Scouts.

"I did. Honestly, I think we're wasting our time here," I said bluntly. "Alyssa targeted Rini so she could get her key."

"But why?" asked a newly-concerned Sailor Moon.

"I don't know..." I conceded. "But Alyssa mentioned she dropped by Amara and Michelle's place earlier. Someone's gotta check in on them...and I don't see us drawing straws over who has to go anytime soon."

The jingle of Diana's collar bell drew my eyes downward. "I'll go!" she perked up.

Her ears and tail drooped when I shook my head 'no'. "Now's not the best time for a lesson, Diana. We're already missing Luna and Artemis. Sailor Moon might have taken Amara and Michelle's transformation rods, but they could still be dangerous. We don't know what they've been up to since then."

"That's exactly why I can't let you go on your own," Sailor Moon insisted. Again, I caught Sailors Jupiter and Mercury peek over the bushes.

I pulled in closer to Sailor Moon so the others couldn't hear: "I can't trust the others when you're not with them, Serena. Not anymore. And you know we can't ask Hotaru or Trista to go back there."

"I know just how you feel," Sailor Moon agreed sadly. "They were always so protective of me, but it's like they just forgot everything I would have wanted as soon as I left. This isn't our way..."

"I could use some alone time to clear my head," I admitted to Sailor Moon. "At least this way, I'm still helping."

"OK Logan," Sailor Moon reluctantly nodded. "I know Luna would want us to cool off first, before we try coming together as a group again. If you're not back at the secret base by the time we're done searching, I'll drop by Amara and Michelle's to make sure you're alright. Just...be careful..."

 **To B** **e Continued**

* * *

 **A/N:** Hey everyone, thanks for tuning back in, and a tremendous thank you to everyone who reviewed and left me a note last time! You guys left ME with some things to think about with the continuation! With a chapter like the last one, I worry sometimes that people will stop reading if I take the characters in a direction they don't like. I have been keeping an eye on the views lately, as well as the amount of feedback/notes I'm getting...while it's not terrible by any means, there has been a drop-off from SoSM, and it's natural to wonder if it's something I'm doing. But not to worry guys: I'm pressing on!

I'll admit, I considered writing an April Fools Joke chapter for last week (an AU rewrite of SoSM!) but the timing just wasn't right. It was completely disparate in tone from what I was doing here, and I know I left a lot of you on the edge of your seats to find out what happens with THIS story. It's one reason I've avoided starting two or more stories at the same time - God knows how many hours I've spent just focused on this and SoSM!

Chapter 12 did come easier to me than the last one, though I still struggled on a few key moments. Hopefully it was clear that we jumped back in time a bit, seeing what Logan and Serena were up to while the others confronted Stephanie over what she knew. We still found ourselves in a familiar place at the end - it's certainly a change in dynamic, wondering how far are the INNER Scouts will go to defeat the Shadows. I wanted to revisit my rewrite for those who may not have checked back the last time we read, highlight some of the changes I made to Chapter 11's ending based on the feedback I got. I wanted to make it a little easier to defend the Inner Scouts' position, while holding true to the original premise of leaving you to doubt whether the Sailor Scouts are really the good guys this time.

Hopefully, I still left you with some questions even as some arguments were inevitably left unresolved for latter chapters. So...whose side are you on? Were Logan and Hotaru right to call Rini out on "Sveti Yeti", or did they take things too far themselves? How long will it take for Rini's friendships and Veganville (credit goes to Lisseas for that line :P) to rebound from their latest earthquake? What do you think is waiting for Logan at Amara and Michelle's place?

Oh - and PS: have you guys checked out Season 3 of Sailor Moon Crystal? Premiered here in the US on Monday; so far the first episode looks like a big improvement over Seasons 1 and 2 :) If you've been down on the new series - or if you haven't seen it yet - I suggest giving the Infinity Arc a chance when you get to see it!


	13. The World Turned Upside Down Again

**Chapter 13: The World Turned Upside Down...Again**

 ** _Stephanie_**

"Stephanie?" _Logan's voice. The last one I was expecting to hear when I woke up. Assuming I was fully awake...the last thing I could remember was taking off in a full sprint to evade our would-be captors, while Doctor Tomoe's half-baked Heart Snatchers kept the Sailor Scouts distracted. One minute Alyssa was beside me, the next she's gone..._

 _Owww, my head. Why did it always have to be the head?_

Slowly, the face that I opened my eyes to and the environment around it came into focus. I thought I could smell burning wood in the distance, symptomatic of Sailor Mars torching a wide swath of the park to cut off my escape. _After Sailor Venus yanked a tree down to pin me beneath its branches...is this how they acted when Bollywood was churning out movie sequels about them?_

"Slowpoke without your morning caffeine, huh?" _It really was Logan's face, glancing down at me sprawled out before him as if I was making a snow angel. Like we were both kids again...but it was ages since we were last friends._

"What are you doing here?" The rest of the park was as fuzzy as the details in my head. "You sounded committed to - " _The pigtailed blonde in the skirt coming up behind him._

"Easy, Steph!" Logan motioned with both his hands as if he was directing traffic - _Alyssa mentioned he was looking into becoming a police officer when she sought him out -_ after I dug both of my hands into the cold wet snow, backpedaling from Sailor Moon quickly as I could. "It's just the three of us, I promise. Things wouldn't have gone the way they did if Sailor Moon had been there."

 _Maybe Logan really believed her baloney. Hell - sorry Nana, I remember you don't believe in Hell - if Alyssa had been standing behind me, not rolling her eyes or reminding me they were closet power-hungry fascists deep down, I might have believed it myself. But they seemed a little too at ease that Alyssa was absent._ "What do you say we table this discussion until Alyssa catches up. Unless...you're not expecting her."  
 _  
Maybe the bottle-blonde in front of me wasn't Logan's latest fling, but there was some fishy deal between the two. Sailor Moon was no Shadow, I saw her eyes dart to Logan for an answer_. _Then I knew: they agreed he'd do all the talking._

"Sailor Moon and I tried to stop the others from chasing after her." Logan's voice was heavy, though he made it a lot harder to glimpse inside his head. "Alyssa just dumped you on the ground and fled."

"Logan...I might be a novice, but I've told enough lies myself to know an obvious one when I hear it!" I seethed. _Alyssa never would have just dropped me after revealing her ace in the hole to save me._ "Swear to me that she's still alive!"

Logan's mouth fell open while sorting through his brain for an answer, but it stayed open when his eyes followed mine back to Sailor Moon...and a smirk that didn't fit that innocent-looking face of hers.

"Congrats, Svetlana. You got me..." She flat-out sneered at me, spitting on whatever pact she had with Logan earlier. "But now, I get something from you too."

In an instant, I was drained of all other feeling when the scythe wielded by Doctor Tomoe's traitorous daughter reintroduced itself to my eyes...or at least the tip of it, which introduced itself to Logan by puncturing his chest just under his throat. I didn't scream, I didn't jump to my feet and run for it... _maybe watching mom and nana breath their last made me numb to seeing others die in front of me. So I thought, until I stared down at the little red specks dotting my jacket and realized it was my childhood friend's blood._ Sailor Moon, meanwhile, looked a different kind of blank, as if seeing Logan killed in front of her was nothing new.

"My Queen..." In a fit of coughs and sputters, Logan flopped down to the snow and reached for Sailor Moon's gloved wrist as if he were about to kiss her hand. "Wh...why?!"

Sailor Moon grabbed his wrist in return and flung him backwards, as if to make the point he was just a discarded piece of trash now. The smirk on her face exploded into the grin of a Cheshire Cat.

"I only need one Shadow to guarantee my reign of Earth will not be challenged. I'll have fun breaking this one in...she's not as naively stupid as you or the billions of idiots who worship me already. MUAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHA..."

 **The End!**

 **A/N: JUST KIDDING! :P  
**

* * *

"...MUAHAHAHA!" The return of my splitting headache accompanied the instant change in voice, from 'Sailor Moon' to one decidedly more male and cackling in tone. Why he was laughing was anyone's guess, but I couldn't have been more relieved to see the Scout-torched forest completely out of view, replaced by the comforting dullness of Doctor Tomoe's sterile lab.

"Doctor Tomoe?" My body was a whole lot more responsive now that I was awake, and I sat up with ease. "Why are you laughing?" _Still a force of habit maybe,_ I thought when Doctor Tomoe answered by abruptly cutting himself off.

"Svetlana. Your memory's intact." All elation I had to hear Alyssa's voice, and see her standing at my bedside, was immediately quelled by the scowl outlining her face, and the crossed arms. _I didn't have to be a veteran Shadow to know Alyssa was really, really mad at me for wandering off on my own._

"Yes, you had us worried for a moment there." Doctor Tomoe wheeled an IV bag off to the side. _I dodged a silver bullet, waking up before Doctor Tomoe could stick me with anything pointy._ "I couldn't find any of the usual culprits for passing out so abruptly...which, in my last field of work, was typical of a bop on the head. Happens a lot in my current line too."

Absent-mindedly, I rubbed the side of my neck and it stung. _Hard. And it hurt on the other side too, right around the spots a veteran Shadow would squeeze with her arm, cutting off the flow of blood to the target's brain and inducing an early naptime..._

 _Alyssa. I lost sight of her while running for dear life. Doubling back around and putting me in a sleeper hold would have done it, but why -_

 _The Tithon Sendoff...I heard the other trainees talking about it, what would happen to those of us who flunked training or deemed unworthy of the robes. They said that our dark shards would be ripped out one by one: rumor had it the procedure was named in the Spymaster's honor because he put out a memo not to bother sedating or putting the kick-outs to sleep first: their memories would be wiped right after anyway. No one doubted that Spymaster Tithon was the best teacher any of us could have asked for - not that any of us would ask him, even on a dare. But I knew I wasn't the only one secretly relieved that Alyssa kept me under her wing. Though knowing Alyssa put me to sleep first gave me little comfort now..._

As conscious as I was that Doctor Tomoe was standing next to my bedside, I reached for one of my invisible shards and I did feel something ooze when I tugged at it, followed by searing pain. What I suspected was confirmed: _maybe I deserved it, maybe it was just a shot across the bow. And maybe scowling back at Alyssa wasn't the smartest thing to do knowing she didn't go through with banishing me yet. But I had to know:_ "I don't remember where all these jabs came from. Was Tomoe literally playing Doctor, or did Hotaru's friends kick me while I was down?"

"You actually saw her?!" _That got a reaction out of Doctor Tomoe, spinning so fast he nearly keeled over in a comical fashion._ "I noticed the letters weren't in your pocket but - wait, you said her friends tried to hurt you? Surely, you don't mean her old ones! For all the misgivings I - or Germatoid rather, had with them - I can't see them attacking other girls at random!"

 _And THERE was Alyssa's reaction...an even more bitter stare that would have made Spymaster Tithon quiver._ "Svetlana's brain was deprived of oxygen several minutes before we got to her, Doc. Possibly even hours; it's the only explanation we have for why she decided to go off on her own to deliver letters right after I got jumped."

 _So, Alyssa decided not to tell him that his daughter was moonlighting as a scythe-wielding Psycho Scout...and was less-than-subtly warning me against breaking the news to Tomoe. Not that I blamed her fully - being secretive meant allies were in short supply, and the other 99.5% of the planet adored the Sailor Scouts. At least, if she was mad about me about that, she had SOME intention of keeping me. Maybe._

"Blasted Sailor Scouts! At least I kept myself busy once I got my body back! Somebody's got to tell them off for becoming so lax!" At the end of his rant, Doctor Tomoe's mood chilled as abruptly as it flared off. "Alyssa, you know that I completely disavow what Stephanie did, and I would have talked her out of leaving if I had known you had explicitly ordered her not to, AND you know that I feel guilty for taking her focus off of...whatever it is you are training her for. But while we're on the subject..." Tomoe's eerie moon-shaped eyes fixed themselves on me, "Hotaru got my letters?"

"She opened one in front of me." My look was returned with a shrug from Alyssa - _if she wasn't flat out telling me "no", I'll assume it's OK._ "She said that she wants to see you."

"As long as the Sailor Scouts are on hiatus, bunkering down is the safest thing. Seeing your daughter is something we can arrange, just...not yet." _Alyssa jumped in to make her point before either of us started concocting a plan to get Tomoe himself out of the lab. It had kept him occupied the last four years. Still, what WOULD Tomoe think if he knew his daughter had switched roles with him, that she was on her way to becoming the villain?_ Quick to change the subject, Alyssa tilted her head towards the next room. "Do you mind checking in on our other guest? I'll keep an eye on Steph. Maybe a leash, too."  
 **  
** _The Kinmokuan that the Starlights were after. I almost forgot that he was here...if he had a sane brain cell in his head, he would have appreciated being kept here after hearing how the Inner Scouts would have treated him. I should have wondered why I didn't hear any screaming or whimpering or straight-up crying in the next room. What a doozy leaving Tomoe alone with him could have been...I did NOT think this one through as much as I should have. Here I was now, left alone with my bitter trainer...or ex-trainer. Content with glaring at me for the next several hours._

* * *

"You didn't tell him that his daughter's a Sailor Scout." _OK, I admit I was never a fan of the silent treatment. There was Logan, during the last four years of grade school, but I deserved that_. "AND you were on the verge of kicking me out, weren't you?!"

"Svetlana, you and I aren't Co-Spymasters." Alyssa spoke in such a measured tone, I would have thought she wasn't mad at me if she hadn't called me by my birth name. "You are not privy to my innermost thoughts, and whether I continue training you is not a mutual decision."

"Are you waiting for me to grovel and beg to stay on?" The calmer Alyssa remained, the angrier I got...until I had thrown my legs to the side of my bed and shouted the rest. "Well too bad, because maybe I want to forget that HIS darling daughter almost tore my throat in half, or that her band of bullies nearly trapped me in a burning forest, but Smoky the Bear himself wouldn't believe it because Sailor Moon is everyone's Lord and Savior! Thing with the Tithon Sendoff though, is that maybe I'll get dumped in the room next to that four-eyed weirdo from the hospital we plucked the Survivor from, and when he says "hey babester, aren't the Sailor Scouts just the coolest?" I'll nod and smile because I don't know better anymore, because YOU wiped my memories, and that's your loss because I know YOU didn't just keep me around because I'm pretty!"

"I wasn't a good teacher if you're THAT sure I had another reason to keep you around." _...Wait, I can't tell whether she's joking or not. The head-shaking looked sincere, though_. "Good thing your mom didn't steer you into law school, you make some pretty weird arguments!"

"I wasn't in a position to argue when you almost expelled me." _Alyssa might have been talking to me again, but all I had left after all that was a shrug of my own_. "Why change your mind, then?"

"Because you're lucky." Alyssa tugged at the back of her sash. "Wouldn't have been fair to kick you out, knowing your stunt wasn't a COMPLETE waste of time..." Tucked in Alyssa's hand was a golden key remarkably ornate for its size, if not it hadn't featured the infamous Sailor Scout bow.

"You got it!" _It looked so small in Alyssa's hand...I could tell Mini Moon was the one she ripped it from. The comparison to Alyssa swiping candy from a baby came to mind, but I didn't feel bad for the little snot now. She didn't look worried about ME in the slightest._ "So now that you've got the key we're looking for, does that mean an intergalactic road trip's in order? I wouldn't mind putting a universe or two between us and the Scouts for a bit.

"Hate to rain on your parade, but..." Alyssa snuck in a grimace while tucking the key between her sash. _At least I knew she'd been entertaining the idea too_. "I'm more curious about the Galaxy Cauldron our alien friend said he visited, namely what kind of stardust he's been snorting. I've NEVER seen anyone block me out of their minds like that before. Tomoe's got him sedated, but I'd still think twice about putting him on too long a leash. Besides, we don't know if using the key could set off some kind of alarm for Sailor Pluto, or if we could even use it without turning the space-time continuum upside-down or what-not."

"Well, thanks to Sailor Moon, there's no ringing up Amethyst either." I flinched myself when even Alyssa cringed at that name. _Much like Spymaster Tithon, everybody admired Amethyst's know-how when it came to the Sailor Scouts...but from what I heard about Amethyst, she was second only to the Spymaster as the last person to call if you were looking for a weekend shopping partner._ "And you'd have to threaten me with another Tithon Sendoff to get me to ask the Scouts again. Don't...let that give you any ideas. Please."

Unpredictable as ever, Alyssa took a sudden interest in the jacket I was wearing. Fear took hold when I remembered the jacket was a loaner. I exhaled in relief upon inspection, finding no tears or blemishes thanks to my run-in with the Scouts, but Alyssa paid little mind to it. "Nice coat. Get a raise from your boss?"

 _A raise - or, any kind of a salary, really - would definitely be cause to celebrate._ But celebrate I did anyway, as my inner fangirl crept back out. "OK, you're not gonna believe who I borrowed this from! Or, well, maybe you will. I take it you're not big on violins."

 _I should have known better than to challenge a master Shadow to a trivia question._ "You bumped into Juuban's local celebrity! Michelle Kaiou, huh?"

"Fine, call me stupid" I sighed. "I didn't think you were into classical music. Or...music at all, really."

"Are you kidding? I love classic music, like..." Alyssa paused for an uncharacteristic amount of time. "Like...Final Fantasy, and...Mass Effect. I even go back to Halo when I'm having a rough day."

 _I could have sworn one or two of those names sounded familiar, but...nope, no bell._ "Are those super-secret bands only a Spymaster would know about?"

"I figured you hadn't heard their music before. Especially not live." _I'm gonna have to look up those bands later._ "You sounded bummed about being stuck here, so how about a trip to return your loaner? You can introduce me to your idol!"

 _The chance at quick forgiveness sounded too good to pass up, but I just had to throw in a bit of caution._ "I dunno, Lyssa. Michelle and Amara sounded awfully close to Hotaru's caregiver. They led me right into the other Sailor Scouts. Who knows what history they might have with them? They might even be in on Hotaru's little secret."

"Amara was there too?" Alyssa asked in that tone suggesting this was more of a quiz than a question, but maybe I was just imagining that. _If Spymaster Tithon really didn't share that many notes with her, I couldn't imagine him writing up a whole dossier on some violinist who did a gig with the Three Lights._

"Yeah, I...think she's a relative? Or not? I couldn't really tell," I pondered out loud. "Oh well, if this means you're forgiving me, I'll try to squeeze an autograph out of her while I'm at it!"

 _Too soon to joke, Alyssa's tight face made that painfully obvious._

"This is more like probation, STEPHANIE." _At…least she was back to using my name, that meant she was maybe a teeny tiny bit less angry at me_. "I'm still not sure that I changed my mind for the right reasons. I know what you're thinking about Tomoe: I don't like keeping things from him any more than you do, but there will be casualties. Better his Heart Snatchers than us."

"Say no more. I remember: you're the boss, you don't owe me an explanation on Tomoe."

"I'm the boss, so if I feel like explaining something to you, you're getting it whether you want it or not." _Alyssa finally lightened back up a bit._ "Don't make me regret this, Steph…"

* * *

 _ **Rini**_

 _"SVETI YETI, HIDEOUS MONSTER ON THE INSIDE!"_

 _My own words just kept echoing again and again inside my head, drowning out whatever noise I made sobbing into my pillow. But I didn't hear myself saying the words in my own voice: I wanted so badly to be able to give Logan, and Hotaru, and Pegasus another explanation. That it was the Negaverse's fault, or dark magic made me do it, or somebody possessed my body and made me say those mean things..._

 _Except I didn't need somebody else controlling my body to make me say the words. I wanted to think I was a better person now...but I never stopped being the same mean-spirited little brat on the inside, had I?_ Lifting my head up for the first time in what felt like hours, I could almost see my eyes turning a darker shade of red, the shadowy phantom of my older self hovering over me...

"Small Lady?" The soft patter of a kitten's footsteps on the floor outside my - _previously Serena's_ \- room, accompanied by the ring of her little collar bell, sent me back into hiding. _"Not only was I a mean person, the only time I stopped crying was to look for my Space-Time Key. Everybody - everyone except Logan and Hotaru, that is - had stayed in the park to dig through snow and peek under benches. Hours retracing my steps just wasted. Maybe Diana to relay one of the others' scolding..._

"I know things with the traitors in the park didn't go so well." _If Logan didn't hate me and was in the room, he would have congratulated Diana on winning the Understatement of the Year Award._ "But Sailor Pluto said just the thing to cheer you up! Or, maybe it was Future Sailor Venus who said it? Sailor Pluto warned me her track record with quotes was a bit spotty. But anyway: she said "when people hurt you over and over, think of them like sand paper. They may scratch and hurt you a bit, but in the end, you end up polished and they end up...Plu-less?" Or maybe it was "clueless?""

"That...doesn't make you feel better?" Diana gently mumbled when I sobbed even harder. "Maybe it WAS Future Venus' quote? I thought it sounded mostly right, she definitely got it from somewhere else - "

"Except I was the bully, Diana!" I screeched into my pillow. "You were there, you heard me!"

"Oh..." A long moment of silence passed between the rest of Diana's words. _Or maybe I'd been in my room so long, that I lost track of time._ "I wouldn't call it BULLYING, exactly..."

"Why? Is it illegal to call a Princess a bully!" _If I gripped my pillowcase any more tightly, I would have ripped it._

"Yes! I mean, no! You still hear Future Mars going at it with Future Venus, and Future Mercury, and Future - wait, she asked me to promise not to tell anyone! I...don't think this is helping." _And Diana wins the Understatement of the Year award for next year before it even starts, Logan would probably say._ "Sailor Pluto said something else about bullies, something that would prove you're not one when you heard it...if I could remember what she said. Being a full-time Shadow Guardian of Time Apprentice Advisor Cat is a LOT to remember!"

I could feel Diana drop from my bed and land gently to the floor while I refused to let out so much as a whimper. "I'm sorry I couldn't help, Small Lady. The Red Ninja of Love sent me in here to tell you don't worry about Spymaster Charon. She'll take care of it."

 _THAT tilted my head just a little, enough to show Diana one eye._ "What was that about Charon?"

"Spymaster Charon still hasn't come back, not since he went to investigate the traitor Scouts' place and find out whether they led the impostor Shadows to us - "

"We might have taken their wands away, but Michelle and Amara are still dangerous! Did he forget they nearly handed him off to the Spymaster themselves?" _Logan, no matter how badly you wanted to get away from us, why those two?!_ "And what does Serena's mangy old clown costume have to do with any of this?"

"Not the clown costume. The ninja costume!" Diana eagerly explained. _Not getting what I meant._ "I begged her to let me come, she said rescuing Spymaster Charon from the treacherous duo would require stealth and secrecy. It sounds like she knows almost as much about the Shadow ways as he does, but I couldn't find a kitty-sized ninja suit anywhere!"

"Diana!" _You win, Diana. If this was some trick to get me out of bed, you at least got my entire face off it now._ "Tell me that Serena didn't take the bus to Amara and Michelle's place wearing a Halloween costume!"

Diana's ears perked up and she nodded eagerly. "Serena wasn't headed for the bus stop - she's running the whole way!"

"GREAT! Now I gotta stop that dolt before she gets captured! Or worse, she embarrasses Logan to the point he never wants to be seen with the rest of us ever again!" I reached across the drawer to grab my compact, but Diana's pouty face stopped me cold.

"I just thought...maybe my words cheered you up" she sniffled. "Maybe you could...TELL them my words helped? Charon doesn't seem to think I'm a worthy candidate for second-in-command of Neo Queen Serenity's Loyal Shadows. Even if he hasn't said it yet."

"He hasn't even had the time to start training you for that, Diana. Besides, there aren't going to be any more Shadows, there's no way mom would - " _Yikes. Almost popped Diana's bubble and sent HER crying alongside me. We didn't need liars and schemers in Crystal Tokyo: Serena herself hinted that at yesterday's meeting...Logan was still the only hoodie we met so far to call them out on their rottenness! Meeting the rest of Tithon's...Grandpa's cell gave me all the reasons I needed to for why I never caught any Shadows skulking around Crystal Tokyo. But, maybe it was better to let Diana piece that together on her own._ "Don't mind me, I'm just rambling. Not like I'd let mom fire you even if she wanted to! Though there WILL only be one loyal Shadow left if we don't get a move-on!"

* * *

 _Tracking down a pea-brained, pig-tailed blonde "stealth" running through twenty-first century Tokyo in a fifteenth-century ninja outfit wasn't even half a challenge. All Diana and I had to do was follow the lines of people staring down the street and the sound of cars honking until we came across a police officer stopping her for us._

"Excuse me? Miss?" The cop threw up an arm to block her, so distracted by her ridiculous outfit that he didn't notice me creep into one neighbor's hedges and come up alongside them. "The outfit you're wearing is...making people very uncomfortable."

"Mister...Police Officer-sama." Through the leaves, I could spy Serena bowing her head to the officer who stopped her. "I mean no harm. This costume merely serves to heighten my senses, for I fear being beset on by prowlers myself. The red brings out the inner ninja within all of us. Wearing it, I am fully in tune with my surround - YYYYOOOWWWW!"

Serena wasn't in tune with her surroundings enough to detect my hands reaching for her elbows BEFORE I yanked her backwards into the bush as soon as the cop turned his head towards traffic. He did look confused when he looked back to where she stood, but he didn't put any effort into looking around for her. He just shrugged and went back to his patrol.

"ANNOYING GRASSHOPPER! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" Lucky for all three of us, he was too far away to hear by the time that Serena finally came around enough to toss me off of her - _wait, did she call me grasshopper?!_

"Don't you copy Mina's name for - !" _Oh wait - Serena was giving me the usual blank stare indicating she didn't know what I was talking about. Yikes, almost outed Mina's mentorship!_ "Logan! Her other nickname for Logan! Why don't YOU explain what running around dressed like that would accomplish! If Shadows could die of laughter, they would have gone extinct while you were still in junior high!"

"I was just on my way to liberate him, as a matter of fact! Clearly, pestering him and Mina twenty-four seven didn't teach you anything about discretion, or you wouldn't alert the whole neighborhood by riding to his rescue dressed like Sailor Mini Moon!" _Look who's giving me a lecture on DISCRETION!_ "I bet you didn't even notice Logan wasn't back yet!"

"She knew! I filled her in, just like you asked me to!" cheered Diana.

"..." After a quick head scratch, the Red Ninja of Lard sighed. "oh yeah, forgot I mentioned it."

Stomping my foot, I shouted "you're such a blockhead, Serena! Just because Amara and Michelle can't transform anymore, you think you can charge into their house like a buffoon and cross your fingers hoping they'll put you in the torture chair next to Logan?"

"That's...MAYBE a better plan than the one I had?"

"You ALWAYS go overboard!" _My brain registered that Serena actually agreed on something, but she already got me too riled up to stop._ "All you had to do was climb through the window dressed like a normal person, but you even managed to muck that up! No wonder he wanted to get away from you!"

"Small Lady - "

"Maybe he wouldn't have had to if just one of you had just thought to ask him what HE wanted, but nobody did and now we all look like crummy friends!" Only my tiny lungs stopped me from going on any further.

"Are you still talking about me, Rini?" A confused-looking Serena asked over my pants for breath. But I caught it just in time to shove Serena through the bush and onto the other side of the street when a neighbor's door flung open and two figures stumbled out...

"HA! RED NINJA!" _That voice sounded an awful lot like Amara. But it couldn't be...she was talking WAY too slow to be her._ "The grapevine...told us you were comin'! Red Ninja...where'd we hear that one before?"

"Didn't we talk like, three times in the last two weeks?" _THAT voice sounded really familiar too, but HE was talking way faster - and louder - than normal._ Someone with Logan's exact same figure tumbled out after the woman who sounded like Amara. "I don't remember Red Ninja stuff, unless it was some...metaphor...for you trying to kill me, maybe?"

"I tried telling you their house was just down the street," Diana squeaked at me and Serena. _That really was them! But however they tried to brainwash Logan, it must have rebounded on Amara somehow. Michelle was nowhere to be seen - no Shadows either, not that they made a habit of announcing themselves. But the treacherous twosome stooped low enough to work for them before, they were behind this for sure!_

"Maybe we should...call Sailor Moon, or something?" Logan suggested. _Serena was in half a crouch, like she was trying to decide whether to jump after Logan and drag him to Amy's. I already made up my mind on that..._

"I thought-" A sudden fit of hiccupping interrupted Amara. "You were the-anti ninja! You-defend-me!"

"AMARA!" _I couldn't take the sight of those two together anymore._ Serena tried to pull me back into cover, but Diana pounced down beside me.

"NINJA!" Amara screamed - not pointing at Serena. _Pointing at ME._ I reached for my Mini Moon Wand, eager to introduce Amara to Super Moon Target - _if I could still use it, after turning my back on Pegasus too -_ but I stopped short of pointing it when she stopped to using Logan as a shield. _At least, that's what I thought until..._

"Quick!" Logan confused me when he grabbed Amara's wrists. At first, I thought he was giving me a chance to blast her, but he flipped her around so they were back-to-back and he...interlocked his fingers, pointing them up in the air with his hands in the shape of a gun and calling out "Charlie's Angels!"

"O-M-G!" Totally forgetting what was happening right in front of them - _and confusing me even more -_ Amara clasped both of Logan's hands with a dumb smile pasted on her face. "You saw that movie?! I L-O-V-E...that movie!"

"No, but I saw the trailer. And it was EPIC!" _This definitely ranked up there with Melvin as the weirdest kind of mind control I'd ever seen_ _. Although it DID remind me of one New Year's Day in Crystal Tokyo, when mom came back to the palace early after calming her nerves with way too much juice. At least that's what she told me when I was five...that it was juice. But Logan way too smart to accept a drink from his almost-killers!_

"LOGAN!" A fuming Serena jumped out with her hands planted on her hips, but Amara and Michelle didn't react at all to her red ninja outfit. "I offer to come to your rescue if you're not back in a timely fashion, and I find you like THIS?!"

"I had to stay-" Logan was the next to hiccup. "Serena. I heard there were ninjas! But neither of us thought to pack our own ninja disguise. Serena...has anyone told you that you are THE smartest out of everyone in our group?"

"Aw schucks, don't tell Amy - " _Serena might have been slow on the uptake, but even she wasn't gullible enough to think SHE was smarter._ "Oh, you're not getting away with that one! I'm wise to your sarcasm now, Mister!"

"Go easy on him, Serena. He's clearly had a bit too much - " My plea was cut short when I noticed Diana looking up at me, waiting patiently for me to explain just what was going on with her sensei. "Juice. Like, you remember feeling woozy after you sampled my glass of OJ, right Diana?"

"Right! I had the BIGGEST tummyache after! The rest of that night's still a blur to me!" Diana chirped. _Yeah, something tells me Logan's not gonna remember much about this night either._

"We might have to beat up Amara to get answers about Logan's current state," I grumbled to Serena.

"I don't think she's up for it either," she sighed. "Logan, of all the people to sip juice with the enemy - "

"Yeah, yeah. Stodgy old Charon said that was a bad idea - or I was talking to myself, I dunno. I let him check for poison then told him he could stuff himself in a bottle next to wine as dated as he is," Logan grumbled. _Trista's gonna facepalm too when she hears about this, taking drinks from his would-be assassin. Unless maybe...he didn't care whether or not it was poisoned in the moment. And I'd be the one to blame for that..._

"Bleh! Quit standing around, making me look like a bad host! Come in, buddy!" Seeing Amara wrap her arm around Logan's shoulder made my skin crawl. My hand wasn't far from my wand the whole time Amara led us back inside their house...

* * *

 _It felt like ages since I last set foot in their fancy place. Well, it had been a couple years, at least. I couldn't avoid comparing it to Raye's Temple when I first came back...they had turned it into such a pigsty! From what Luna told us, the Outer Scouts didn't have a lot of free time in between picking up the slack for the others, and I'm guessing that Plu did a lot of the housekeeping before she took Hotaru with her. Thought number two: a lot of this was recent._

"So Amara..." _I got sick to my stomach watching Logan drop his behind on Amara's crummy-looking couch right beside her. And not just because I wouldn't have been surprised if a gazillion rats came scurrying out from between the cushions and under leftover slices of pizza!_ "What have you been up to since the last time we saw you? Brewing up some magic potion to make anyone your best friend?"

"Hehe...you were right, Logan. Your kid pal's a jealous one!" _Oh ewww! Logan talked to Amara about me?!_ Amara reached for a bottle that was clearly empty, but started chugging it on instinct. "Wizard of Oz just happened to be on when he came on, so later I asked him...who'd win in a fight? Him, or a six-foot-five Lunarian Knight wearing a BIG metal suit with - pauldrons, and a helmet with wings?"

"I'm not following..." _I was trying really hard trying to picture all of us hanging out with a titan-sized hunk whose head towered over all of ours. The height difference would be too much for me...though a hulk-sized version of Logan bending down for a hug-it-out with Mina would make a funny picture, though! I wondered, though..._ "How'd Wizard of Oz give you THAT idea?"

"Because TINMAN!" Amara proclaimed with another swig of air. "Get it?"

"..." _Even if I knew Diana had wanted to shout Charon was sure to win, her long wordless stare-off with Serena over 'Tinman' proved I wasn't the only one lost._

Slumping back into her couch, Amara stammered "they teach you ANYTHING in public school anymore?! Somewhere out there, SOMEBODY gets it!"

"Fascinating question," Serena groaned. "But we'd really like to find out how you and Logan became such fast friends. And where's Michelle?"

Michelle gave herself away with a hiccup of her own, appearing behind the kitchen - and a tabletop littered with bottles of different sizes - holding a more elegant-looking curvy glass half-filled with red liquid.

"Oh look, she's got fruit juice!" Diana noticed. _If the hiccups were anything to go by, Michelle just gave into "if you can't beat 'em..."_

"NOOO! HOW COULD YOU, MICHELLE?!" _I think Amara was trying to get off the couch to rip the glass out of Michelle's hand, but she capsized over the couch and landed on her back instead_. "You're setting a terrible example for the CHEEL-DRIN!"

Simply watching Amara fumble standing right-side-up as if she was a tipped cow, Michelle just kept frowning and took another sip. "Of course you're right, Amara! How could I be so inconsiderate, thinking about having ONE drink to cope with scrubbing the very couch you're sitting on of two weeks-worth of vomit? And in case you don't remember, the vomit wasn't mine or Logan's."

"I wasn't sitting here, vomiting on the couch for two whole weeks! More like...one-and-a-half!" Amara righted herself back up and dropped herself back down to the couch just as Logan abruptly jumped off it. "I tried the whole 'wallow in self-pity' thing for a while after Serena kicked us out of the group, districting myself with NASCAR on TV. But watching that made me want to go for a drive, and I couldn't because I might bump into...you know who."

 _So Amara felt guilty about what she did to us, at least. She made me doubt she ever felt bad for anything she did, after last time. If she had learned the first time though, or the time after that, OR the time after that, then Sailor Moon would never have kicked her out._ "Maybe it was thinking about the guy who got us kicked out in the first place - no offense, Logan - that gave me the idea to give American soaps a try. But that was even more depressing. How am I supposed to pick a favorite character when the ENTIRE cast looks EXACTLY the same?!"

Droplets of red so-called juice went flying to the other side of the kitchen when Michelle spat out the rest of her drink. "AMARA!"

"Fine, fine, I'm exaggerating a bit!" Amara looked totally oblivious to Logan standing on the other side of the couch, wobbling in the corner. _And just as oblivious-looking to what SHE was saying._ "There was the red-headed doctor guy. Of course you had to be able to tell HIM from everybody else!"

"And you just called ME a bad example?!" Michelle set her drink down and growled. "And saying that in front of Logan, no less?!"

"That is STEREOTYPING, MichiRU! Just because Logan has the SAME color hair, and the SAME color eyes, and the same kinda-squinty...oh. OH." Amara draped her arm around where Logan used to sit - _maybe unaware he was now standing about three feet away from her and leaning on Serena for support._ "You know I didn't mean it like THAT, do ya pal? Logan here is my BBBBRRRROOOO! And Darien's OK too, I guess. He's not REALLY American but - I'd have a weak argument if I only had - one example!"

"Is this the longest I haven't said anything?" Logan turned his drunken head over to Serena, who was straining to keep him propped up leaning on her shoulder.

"Mmm...top five, maybe?" Serena answered with half a shrug.

"Don't you make fun of ME, Missy...Moonhead!" Logan slurred. "I might talk more if you asked me what I thought more often! But nobody - NOBODY asks me what I think! You only care about what sober old Charon thinks, and even HE'S barely an on-off consultant!"

"Master Logan, I don't suppose you could tell me how somber old Spymaster Charon thinks my training is coming along?" Diana asked.

I was terrified he might answer that one. _Something about Logan always told me he didn't think Diana was the best candidate to take Plu's role guarding the Space-Time Gate. Not that I could see any good reason why she couldn't do it._ But Logan just sort of grinned goofily at my kitty friend. And let go of Serena. "You care what I think. I like you. YOU carry me!"

"I don't think that's possible, Logan!" I threw myself over Diana just as Logan dropped himself on top of her. _Now I was his crutch instead. Except, as I found out the hard way, even as Sailor Mini Moon...I wasn't strong enough to carry him just yet._

"Tell ya what...Chibi...Bibi Ugaki." _I think Logan was talking to me?_ "Truce if you share a bit of that juice you keep talking about? Um...what was I mad at you for again?" Not that some small part of me didn't want him to forgive me that easily - _for however long whatever he actually drank lasted -_ the ring of Amara and Michelle's bell interrupted whatever this was. Ducking beneath their curtain, Diana leaped to get eyes on our surprise guest...

"It's a girl. She has purple eyes like Hotaru, but with long silver hair!" Diana filled in the deets for us, but seeing Amara and Michelle stare blankly back-and-forth between each other sent Diana pressing her fur back against the glass pane. "Wait, her friend looks familiar!"

Curiosity got the better of me - _though better me than Serena -_ and I sprung up beside Diana for my own peek at the second girl. _Around the other girls' age, slightly older maybe though just as pretty, with brown hair that looked like she spent hours trying to iron out the curls this morning and - wait. Oh no..._

"STEPHANIE?!"

 **To Be Continued**

* * *

 **Real A/N:** It's been such a long time, I don't know how many of you have been waiting for me to get off my arse and post a new chapter already! I just hope nobody missed the "first" author's note and sent me a hate-laced review or note - sorry, I couldn't help myself :P I hope the dream scene wasn't too heavy-handed, but it's been AGES since we last checked in with Stephanie and company, so I thought a little refresher and peek back into her mind would help...Steph's on the opposite side, what little interaction she and Sailor Moon have had so far has been antagonistic and she hasn't had the best introduction to Sailor Moon's other friends, to say the least. That, and dream scene was about the only canon way I could turn Sailor Moon into a cackling villain :P As I'm typing this, I'm trying to picture Terri Hawkes' going "MUAHAHAHAHA!"

If you haven't checked out "The Shadows Beckon" (a prequel I wrote to SoSM while I was racking my brain for ideas for THIS story), seeing Rini's name in bold and italics might have come as a surprise. I wasn't planning on a third perspective, at least not a Sailor Scout, because one of the themes for these stories is that we get an outside point of view. Yeah, we had the show but Sailor Moon and her friends were clearly the focus, and I wanted to move away a bit. Having Rini narrate came down partly to pragmatism: I wrote the scene from Logan's perspective at first, I showed just how he got in this state (and how he became BFFs with his near-assassin...), but the only way seeing Logan narrate perfectly as he's stumbling about in a drunken haze would be if I asked you guys to suspend your disbelief beforehand, and switching to third-person like I did at points in SoSM would feel really jarring (another theme of my stories IS seeing everything through first-person). Writing Rini's narrative in TSB was a lot more fun than I thought and I felt comfortable writing her, so she was a natural choice to give you guys the Sailor Scouts' side of the story :) I know quite a few of you asked for it, and I've also been asked if other Sailor Scouts will narrate:

It's not something I'll rule out entirely, but one big concern I have is splitting the narrative too much: not only is it a lot of work getting several characters' internal thoughts just right and giving them a unique narrative style, it can also get confusing to remember who's telling the story and what one character might know that another one doesn't (like the Inner Scouts have no idea Doctor Tomoe's hanging out under Mugen School of his own free will, they weren't in the scene). I introduced Stephanie for the same reason as Rini, I felt she had something to add to the narrative by showing the opposite side of the fight. I have ideas for other Sailor Scout stories set in the same universe as Logan and the Shadows, but they'd more likely be one-shots or separate stories.

That's it for now! My writing's slowed to the school since I came back to grad school, but it feels good to be back in the game! Hope you enjoyed my latest, and stay tuned!


	14. Two Steps Back

**Chapter 14: Two Steps Back  
**

 _ **Rini**_

 _NOW?! Why did Stephanie have to be here now?! Maybe I shouldn't have been THAT surprised. Amara and Michelle worked with the Shadows before. That's why Serena signed off on Logan paying her a visit in the first place...if Stephanie paid them a visit earlier, Alyssa was bound to sooner or later. But now that she was here, what would I say? How could I say "sorry for calling you names earlier" without sounding like I was saying we were wrong? I had to think fast, because her silver-haired friend was sure to be one of them, too. Maybe there was a teeny-tiny glimmer of hope Stephanie DID realize her mistake and was looking to Amara and Michelle to help her defect to our side. But after the way we treated her earlier, how likely was it she'd come around this soon?_

"You wouldn't dare sell us out, would you?" I just had to ask our ex-pals, while I tugged Diana back from the couch by her tail. _She hated that, but we all knew how...easily excitable she was about proving herself as a Shadow-Guardian Advisor Cat of Time, or whatever she called it. Even though Charon didn't have the time to show her much of anything. And he wasn't quite in the frame of mind for it now..._

"Do you - think my fingers - are fingy enough to even write a text?!" _Just like Amara wasn't in the frame of mind for answering questions, but drink hadn't made her a different person entirely. She still tiptoed around giving a straight answer._

"We weren't expecting them back, we swear Rini!" _At least Michelle was more direct_. _But they betrayed us as a duo...Michelle's word was worth as little as Amara's. Maybe even less._

"Get them off our backs - nicely - and we're good! Promise!" Serena made the traitorous ex-Scouts an offer I knew the others wouldn't be thrilled about. _Even Logan - just because he found a new BFF in Amara didn't mean he'd be thrilled about it the morning after. Serena was always quicker to forgive than the rest of us..._ but I was too busy trying to steer Logan behind the couch to argue with her. Whether Serena noticed or not, she left him to fall right on top of me.

"Are you saying? Does that mean we'll be?" Amara HAD to have known we weren't handing over their transformation sticks so easily or so soon, but a sparkle of hope twinkled in her long dull eyes. "Doesn't matter, Shelley and I - will take - what we can get! Consider them out of here! Nicely!"

"Maybe you should leave them to me?" Michelle tried pulling herself up from the counter, but she couldn't beat Amara to the door. _One glass too many herself, I guess._

"YO! STE-FANNY!" _There was Stephanie, bewildered face and all across from Amara's rock star-shaped hand._ "WASSUUUUUUUUUUUUP?!"

Michelle face-palmed so hard I was sure that Stephanie could hear it from the doorway. Then things became so quiet, you could hear a tumbleweed roll by before Stephanie finally said something. "I...take it this isn't a good time? We just...came to drop off your jacket. And - "

"Yes! Buzz off! Go back to Yankee Land! Wait, I mean..." Amara tipped over to the other extreme and dragged both girls in by the collar. Amara sure was lucky that Stephanie wasn't more of a Shadow, or there might be an Amara-shaped hole in the roof right about now. "Stay here! FOREVER! As long as you like! We don't got NOTHING to hide behind our couch!"

"Really, we can come back!" Peeking up, I caught Stephanie's friend - _or "friend" if she was a fellow Shadow -_ cut her off with a whisper. Looked to me like "we're here on business," but I couldn't be sure. _Lip-reading was more up Logan's alley. I wish he was really here right now...well, he was PHYSICALLY here, but his brain was out on vacation._ I really wished Logan was all here for another big reason...I couldn't get him to grasp the idea that we were supposed to be hiding. I had to keep pushing him behind the couch so the Shadow pair wouldn't catch us snooping. Serena wasn't much help with that...even less so, when her vibrating phone almost gave us away.

"Do you HAVE to answer that now, Serena?!" I hissed at her quietly.

Logan tapped my shoulder and grinned at me all goofily. "Aw look at you, Miss Not-So-Easily-Distracted!"

"Go back in your shell, Turtle!" _Not literally, I should have mentioned, when he scrunched up like a ball and tried tucking his head under his arm. Not that he didn't look kinda, sorta adorable in a way while he was doing it -_

"Amy texted me." Serena's face made that scrunched up, all-confused look. "Serena. If you and Logan are on speaking terms, kindly show this to him."

"Amara suggested I send Inner Scouts and friends a bill for services rendered," Logan snorted. "She said "the silent treatment's no good when it comes from someone who barely talks! Wow, that...sounds mean when I say it out loud."

"That explains the hospital bill," Serena sighed, showing the image on her phone to me and Logan. And making my job a whole lot harder, as I was left with the job of consoling Logan too...

"I shoulda listened to you, stodgy old stick-up-your-butt Charon! Juice makes me a JERK!" All I could do was shush for Logan to pipe down, then flip my communicator open to try smoothing things over with Amy - after we called her for help. But then a loud clash came from the dining room. And another. Followed by another. Diana leaped onto Serena's head for a better look: we peeked at Stephanie and her mystery friend circling Amara with a stack of wobbling saucers and cups in each hand. The latte machine behind them was overflowing too.

"When we said, "don't go to any trouble for us," we meant "PLEASE don't go to any trouble for us!"" Steph leapt forward to keep one leaning stack from crashing to the ground.

"My friend, who's NOT hiding in my house, said be a nice host! So I'm BEING a nice host!" _We could only hope that Stephanie and her maybe-Shadow accomplice would ignore what Amara said as one of those weird things people say when they get tipsy. Or hope Amara kept distracting them with her clumsiness, which seemed to keep the other maybe-Shadow occupied when the whole stack fell out of her hands._ Michelle's glazed-over eyes just followed the silver-haired one, catching each and every porcelain plate before it could shatter on the ground. _All with the dexterity of somebody I'd suspect was a Shadow..._

"Rini, did you call me?" _Amy's voice! I forgot I dialed her already._ "What's all that racquet?" I meant to answer, but before I could get a chance too _..._

"I'm sure if your friends really were here, and not hiding in the guest room here, they'd see you were a really REALLY nice host! Nice enough, hopefully, to answer one tiny question for us..." Clearing away any last doubts over who she truly was, Stephanie's silver-haired friend removed an unmistakable key from her backside and lay it on the kitchen table in front of them. "Have you seen one of these before?"

"One of Trista's - " _Michelle was definitely out of her stupor now_. "Where did you find that?! She wouldn't just leave it!"

"She stole it from me!" I whispered to Serena and Diana. "That's MY Space-Time Key!"

"Phew! What a relief, right?" As if Logan hadn't surprised us enough already, he ignored our efforts to pin him down and stepped into full view of everybody seated - or slumped over - in the kitchen. "Alyssa! Hey, Alyssa!"

"LOGAN! SHUT UP!" _Too late, Rini. That was the end of any chance we had at staying hidden, ended by the master of staying hidden himself. Now, how would he get out of this pickle?  
_  
"Fear not, Small Lady! Surely, this is part of Spymaster Charon's ingenious plan to eradicate the Shadow impostors once and for all!" _Oh Diana, if only I didn't know any better, then I could be just as confident as you._ "You two play Sailor Scout, I'll sneak around and deliver the finishing blow! Just like he would!"

And before I could yank her back by the tail, Diana - was squirming under one of the front windows, positioning herself for her 'sneak attack'. I thought back to using Pink Sugar Heart Attack against my grandpa and watching each heart bounce harmlessly off the back of his hood. Now I was taking on another successor of his with only a cat and a chunky monkey in a ninja suit as backup. Sailor Mercury, Tuxedo Mask...GET HERE!

"You found my pal's key, Ally-sa! You deserve a cookie!" _That sounded like Logan's "juice" kicking in to full effect, his arm stretched in the air like a moron as he stumbled towards his would-have-been assassins._ "I shouldn't bake now though, so...high five!"

"Sure. High five...BUDDY!" _That was the cocky smirk of a Shadow big-wig alright._ _Even if Logan wasn't all there, how did he think this was gonna play out?!_

"Hold up...since when did you two make nice?" _Stephanie hadn't put two-and-two together yet._ Alyssa waited patiently for Logan to close the gap between them before spelling it out for her...

"When he made this easy." Just before Logan's palm rubbed against Alyssa, she grabbed his wrist and flung him over her back onto the hard floor. Amara and Michelle both jumped back when they saw the dark blue robes or a Shadow flash into existence around her...and I nearly tripped over the couch when Stephanie crouched over Logan to shelter him from his attacker.

"You're treading on VERY thin ice, Steph!" Alyssa screeched at her accomplice, though she didn't shove Stephanie as hard as I expected. _Of course, if Alyssa just recruited Stephanie to sweet-talk Logan back to her, she could only let herself be so nasty. In a way, I wished that Alyssa HAD flung Stephanie away, because I'd already counted for that when I aimed my wand..._

"SUPER MOON TARGET!" I fired so quickly that I sent the wrong Shadow flying backwards and crashing into Michelle's fridge. There was no doubting Stephanie recognized me from earlier, giving me a stare that made me want to curl into a ball and die after noticing the scorch mark on her - _Amara's -_ jacket. "Sorry?" I mumbled quickly. _Not the best way to start any sort of apology off...  
_  
"BACK DOWN, ALL OF YOU!" Serena took Stephanie's place, jumping over Logan to shield him from the revenge-crazed pseudo-Spymaster ominously hovering over him. _I'd rather Sailor Moon were here, but at least her ninja outfit kept Alyssa staring at her ridiculousness._ "This doesn't have to be like last time!"

"She's right! Listen to Moonshine!" Logan slurred. _Serena's scrunchy-face told me she especially hated being called "Moonshine"...I'd better look up what it means before I start using it myself._ "A couple drinks - of JUICE - and you'll see MY friends aren't comic book villains either!" _Too bad for Logan, Diana picked that exact moment to squeeze in under the kitchen window..._

"GGGRRR! DIE TRAITOR!" My...enthusiastic advisor kitten flew towards Alyssa's face like a missile. Diana sailed in the air, landing on her paws after harmlessly whizzing past her target.

"Wait, Diana!" I tried to ward her off after she swiveled around for another pounce. "We're not doing that anymore!"

 _This time, she listened, though she was the pouty-looking one now._ "But at least that's how Spymaster Charon would have done it, right Small Lady?"

"SOMEBODY explain the start of this, first?" Stephanie spared me from answering Diana's question, putting the spotlight squarely back on Amara and Logan.

"You didn't notice ANYTHING off about our gracious hosts?" I snuck a quick-enough peek under Alyssa's hood to catch a quick eyeroll. _If she had moved anything else though, my next attack wouldn't miss the mark._

"They're both a little tipsy? Duh?" Stephanie told off her boss like a twentieth-century valley girl.

"Haha Shelley! She called you TIP-SY!" Amara didn't have long to enjoy her taunt...Michelle followed it up with a hard slap to the back of Amara's head. _Amara was gonna have an especially hard time getting out of the "upside down, feet-in-the-air" position.  
_  
"You also noticed Logan SIMILARLY out-of-it because..." Alyssa flicked her wrist in a circle, waiting patiently for Stephanie to complete her sentence...spinning it faster and faster as Stephanie took her time figuring it out.

"Woah! You're confused!" Stephanie flatly shook her head in denial. "I never saw Logan drink!"

"Well, duh." Alyssa sighed loud enough for all of us to hear. "Age ten's a bit young to start!"

"That wasn't the last time I saw him!" Stephanie blurt out.

"No, it wasn't." Alyssa leaned in closer to her face and nodded in agreement...mock agreement. "This time's just longer than all those other times combined!"

"Wait!" Logan raised his arm again. This time, he stared at the clock over the sink and quietly counted down from four on his fingers. "NOW this time's the longest."

"I just never pictured it!" Embarrassed, Stephanie flung her arms out. _You're not the only one surprised to find him like this, Stephanie._

"Wait, I'm confused." Sitting on the kitchen counter, Diana scratched her ear with one paw. "Princess Rini started drinking juice from a much younger age!"

"Some kids, like Logan, have...sensitive stomachs!" _Dressing like a ninja doesn't make you a better liar, Serena. At least she was quick to change the subject_. "Look at that! Thirty seconds without violence! This moment just proves we can sit down and talk about our differences - OWWW! WHO THREW THAT?!"

A loaf of bread plopped on the ground after Serena in the back of her still-hooded meatball head. Lita stood in the newly-widened doorway, half-hiding herself behind a full shopping bag. _Mad as she was at the owners, I could still see her feeling embarrassed over forgetting her own strength again_. Squeezing between Lita and the curvy doorway came Raye, tossing something our way from her clenched fist...

"SERENA! YOUR COMPACT!" _Raye also could have done well with Moon Tiara Magic,_ I thought as Serena's spinning compact smacked her in the face hard as a rock.

"RAYE! YOU IDIOT!" _I knew Serena would rather have Tuxedo Mask exclusively do the white-knighting_. _I guess Serena had a little extra reason to be mad...she might have taken Alyssa for an idiot and figured Raye just gave her identity away. Not that she had that to worry about, Alyssa was WAY smarter_. "Next time you both stalk me, at least follow closely enough to know when I have things under control!"

"Yeah, sorry for doubting you had the mental faculties to control ANYTHING, given your choice of costume!" _For all that changed since my first visit, Raye still went at it with Serena just like they were teenagers again._ "And sorry I thought to bring your compact after you carelessly left it in your room!"

"You think we'd have barged in tossing stuff if we HAD been tailing you?!" Lita still looked ready to throw all contents of her bag at a moment's notice, her eyes following Logan as he wobbled beside the pair of Shadows. "We went to the store and just happened to be passing by!"

Raye leaned in and whispered into Lita's ear: "and you dropped your wand in the bag too, didn't you?" Lita dared not answer in front of the Shadow duo, but she took longer with her second peek inside.

"Well. This was mildly amusing, or we'd already be gone." _Stupid smug She-Tithon. If she didn't have Logan and Stephanie with her, we would have turned Amara and Michelle's kitchen into a smoking crater already!_

"I forgot my manners! Thanks for standing there while I fetch something to throw at the back of YOUR head!" Lita dropped her grocery bag onto the floor. "I was thinking Amara's car transmission!"

"NO! Can we not go right back to the ka-powing and the ka-pooshing and the pow-pow-pow just yet?" _We definitely weren't ready to allow Logan to go back to that, just yet._ "I still need girl talk!"

"Isn't that what you spent the past six hours doing here?" Michelle's slur pulled Lita and Raye's eyeballs towards her. _Least I wasn't the older one weirded out seeing Logan hang out with his would-have-been killers._

"Amara isn't a GIRL!" _And Logan just got himself a glare from his now probably hopefully ex-BFF._ "I mean, you ARE a girl, or woman, just...not a girly-girl. We didn't really talk makeup, or glitter, or unicorns but...that's a stereotype. And I've got a story for that! Back in my day...errr, two to three-hundred something years before my day...there was a war. The war to end all wars. The French and Indian War. OK, there was another like...ten years after, but my point is...imagine if the French, and British, worked TOGETHER instead of letting Bulgaria wade in! We could be speaking the same language!"

Following a long, muted pause, Raye stammered first. "I think Amy would have pointed out a couple things wrong with your story..."

"Well, don't look at me! History wasn't MY best subject either!" _Serena, what subject ARE you good at besides Lunch?!_ "But the point's what matters! We could at least try to come together on SOME things!"

"Actually..." Logan flipped both his thumbs towards the unusually benign Shadows. "My point was, how silly would we have looked if we HAD been BRITISH, strutting around in corsets and what-not. Course by now, we might have rebelled over something silly. Like tea. Throwing boxes of tea into the - "

Speaking of boxes, a heart-shaped tin flew over my head with the pointy end targeting Logan's face. _At least he made sort of an effort to dodge it, though whatever he drank definitely slowed him down._ The tin fell apart when it hit the ground and smaller heart-shaped chocolates tumbled out onto the floor. _And Serena swooped them up like Easter eggs._

"LOGIE-BEAR! I'M DOUBLE SORRY!" _That was Mina, rushing through next, barely closing the door behind her._ I braced myself for what was sure to be double the flip-out when she noticed Logan flanked by two Shadows - GIRL Shadows. "I wasn't aiming for YOUR face when I threw my apology chocolates!"

"You could have thrown the flowers if you had to throw something!" Lita pointed out the small fistful in Mina's hand. _Hmmm, I think I saw flowers just like that planted right beside their neighbor's hedges._

"I thought that, but Tuxedo Mask copyrighted the move for all we know." Making a note of Darien's absence, Mina put on her sour face. "You know he gets insanely jealous."

"Ewww!" Stephanie barely repressed her first reaction. She made things even worse by failing to notice Mina staring her way when she tacked on: "my dream was half-right?!"

""Ewww" would be picturing my boyfriend in whatever blubbery, boot-licking, brunette Shadow blowhards picture when they sleep at night!" _Mina, you know I love you, but...you just called Darien the Über-jealous one?_

"I'm blubbery?!" Hand on her elbow, Stephanie struck her own diva pose. "I wondered why so few chocolates fell out of your tin. I thought you were making the point that your apology's half-hearted, but now I see you just helped yourself to most of them!"

"Chill, Mina!" Lita held my love-crazy mentor back, sharply whispering in Mina's ear, "I have brown hair too, if you didn't notice!"

Serena squished her face with the palm of her ungloved hand. "Well, now that we're all mostly here - mostly being except THE FIRST TWO PEOPLE WE CALLED ON FOR HELP!" And...Hotaru, and Trista. But since Alyssa and Stephanie were kind enough to stay, we can pick up where we left off yesterday - NO, I DIDN'T MEAN THAT!"

Serena flailed her arms about trying to give Alyssa the message, after she reminded us she still had that dark magic spinning Shadow blade thingy the others described. Sure they wouldn't be the ones to make things ugly, Serena did a prompt about-face and turned her speech on the rest of us. "As Sailor Scouts, we've said the exact same things for the past six years - "

"Tithon even mentioned it in his notes!" There was Alyssa, still playing instigator, but Stephanie tapped her gently on the shoulder. _I still couldn't help wondering if they did have something insidious brewing behind the scenes, but I wanted to think she was urging her boss to hear us out. At least it'd be a sign I hadn't totally mucked up our chances of getting her to side with us._

"The point I've been getting at for the last six hours..." _The constant interrupting was getting on Serena's last nerve, I could see it_. "Is we're Sailor Scouts. We fight for love, and we fight for justice. And I - "

"I'M SAILOR MERCURY!" _Amy finally showed up, remarkably late...even if she wasn't as tardy as Darien, who wasn't even here yet._ From the other side of the window, Sailor Mercury lifted her arm towards the kitchen sink behind Logan, Stephanie and Alyssa. Amara and Michelle's faucet exploded in a wintry mix that sent shards of ice flying. Alyssa could have used the distraction to take Logan out, but she pushed Stephanie to the ground instead _. Not a move I'd expect from a would-be Spymaster. But if she was trained by Grandpa...Stephanie had her uses somewhere, that had to be the reason._ Anyway, it was Serena who ended up getting doused in frozen water mid-speech again. "Champion of Love and Studying!"

"And where the heck have you been?!" Serena crossed her arms, tapping her foot impatiently while Mercury squeezed in through the window.

"Yeah, you missed Logan's history lesson!" I added, hoping Amy would get the hint that Logan was...a bit out of it when he wrote her that message.

"Sorry Rini, I couldn't make it out. And I didn't think a certain someone would even want my help." _OK, Mercury didn't catch on right away, but Logan set out to make it clear as possible..._

"Let's just say...water under the bridge? Get it? Because that's your element? Or should I have just said, "let it go?" Because the sink exploded. Mina, am I getting my quotes right?"

"No need to answer, I...see what that was about." Sailor Mercury nodded uncomfortably and tugged away at the unsteady pair of hands that grabbed her bare shoulders. "I was confused by your use of...emojis in your last message."

"Now, if you'd be so kind as not to make this moment all about you!" _Serena looked like she was gonna blow a head gasket after one more interruption!_ "We've ALL been bullied ourselves at one point or another. Raye, the word around town was that you were some kind of witch because you had supernatural power. Remember when everyone in our year thought you were snobby, Amy? Or when everyone was just too scared to even talk to you, Lita? And Mina, you told me some mean things about YOUR classmates, that you were short on friends because they thought you were a Sailor V-copying weirdo. And Rini, you're STILL a bully!"

"You can say that again!" _Thanks a lot, Serena! At least she gave Stephanie the chance to put her hatred of me out there for everyone to see..._ "Did you make up "Sveti Yeti, hideous monster on the inside" all by yourself? Or did Logan help you when he told you what a monster I was!"

"Logan didn't tell us anything about you! We found out by ourselves - " _When your ex-Spymaster sent us on a trip through Logan's dream world, where we got a first-hand glimpse of all your worst memories. OK, maybe I wasn't as ready for this as I thought..._

Mina jumped forward to raise her arm out in front of me. "Serena didn't say interrogate her!"

"Oh please, smite her not, your royal highness!" Alyssa mockingly curtsied as Stephanie looked on. "Quickly! Kiss her Royal Majesty's shoes and beg forgiveness for daring to think about asking a question without permission!"

"Don't plaster Tithon's style on us!" Raye jumped in alongside me with her wand in hand, shunting aside Serena's last-ditch effort to keep this from coming to blows. "Everyone in our group's free to speak THEIR mind at any time!"

"Yeah? You...you wanna know what I thought I'd rather hang out here?" The whole room went still when Logan spoke up. "I thought...I'd rather take my chances with Amara and Michelle, because even if they tried poisoning me, at least it was a reaction to what I said. I couldn't talk tactics with them, like how the only thing we knew about any Shadow outside Tithon's cell before today is that I talked to one of them for like twelve hours. But I could tell that part to Amara's wall, because at least walls absorb what I tell them."

"Oh, Logie...of course we care about what you have to say." Mina's soothing voice tried to ease the situation, but that was cut off by the swoosh of a book sailing across the room to hit Logan in the face...and this projectile hit its mark. Hotaru made every effort to squeeze through without so much as a glance my way. Trista followed close behind, making HER best effort not to look so pleased with Hotaru. _Wow, none of us even thought about a backdoor! We closed the front and thought that was the end of it!_

"Wow, OJ makes you SLOOOW!" Logan stammered.

"We care what you have to say too, Logie-BENEDICT ARNOLD!" Hotaru swept her book off the ground. "I can't believe you were here sipping juice with the snakes who nearly sold you out to Tithon while we were worried about you! And orange juice doesn't explain why you didn't just teleport when I threw the book at you!"

"Oh, I'm still not convinced he's not just acting!" Stephanie half-teased. "He made a convincing Humpty Dumpty in the school play!"

"Logan wasn't in any plays!" _Whoops. Stephanie's eyes were on me again, no doubt wondering what made me say that. Maybe it was sort of possible his dream world didn't have time to show us every little thing that happened in his life. Like, I noticed we never saw Logan showering or doing...other guy stuff in his room that I didn't already know about, but I figured his dream world might have sensed we were girls or something. Bringing up the idea with Mina and Stephanie in the same room probably wasn't the best idea, though._ "I mean, I just always figured he was too shy for it."

"Well..." _Steph was actually answering me, and not in an angry tone either._ "He played Humpty Dumpty AFTER he fell and went splat. Logan...just lay on the floor while the rest of us stepped on him for the rest of the play."

I couldn't help asking: "Was ANYBODY nice to Logan at your old school?!"

"Well, he was up for a speaking part..." I was sure Steph was about to nominate herself, but _...not in a boasting way. More like a 'it was the least I could have done' sort of way._

"So we weren't the only aliens on this planet." A trio of fingers snapping together in unison cut what little progress I just made with Stephanie to a standstill. "A shuttle full of space cases crashed here first."

"And four years after our first landing, they still haven't adapted."

 _Bleh, the Starlights. What did the other girls see in them that I didn't?_ "Really, guys. Don't your hands ever get tired from all that snapping?"

"And don't you have manners on your planet?!" Michelle broke out of her stupor and shook Amara so hard, she made puking noises. "Amara, they're wearing their shoes on OUR table!"

"Oh, OK, that...might have been a bit much." Sailor Star Fighter mumbled after their group finger-snapping came to an abrupt stop. "Even for you two."

"We just thought...stage. That's all." Sailor Star Maker led the others with a hop to the floor. _Well, at least Michelle redeemed herself a little bit. Just a little, though._ "We'll get off now."

"This house looked bigger from the outside. It's more cramped than meatball brain's place. At least she's not here with those stupid wings!" Sailor Star Healer grumbled before the doorbell cut her off.

Hmmm, if it had been Tuxedo Mask or one of the Guardian Cats, they would have let themselves in. Maybe Tuxedo Mask was being theatrical, but he was usually way more inventive, like when he came in on Santa's sleigh.

Serena might have thought so too, because her hand stretched towards for the door before Star Healer yelled at her not to answer it. "Did you hear what I just said?"

"You realize it's me, standing right here?!" The Red Ninja pulled her hand away, but the grumbling persisted. "I'm just gonna blurt the rest out! Yes, even I say some not-so-nice things myself on very very rare occasions, but that doesn't make what happened at the park OK! Bullying a Shadow is still bullying! Even if it comes second-nature for two certain not-to-be-named Sailor Scouts to bully me in-and-out of uniform on a regular basis!"

"Seriously?! THAT'S why you're just giving up?! Sailor Star Fighter came forward, shock etched all over her face. "After everything you told us about them?!"

"Serena just wanted to talk things out! She didn't say anything about surrendering!" Raye rushed to point out. "Not us, anyway."

"Is that why you think WE stuck around for?!" Stephanie shot an accusing look at Raye, but Sailor Star Fighter intercepted it with one of her own.

"I don't want to hear a peep out of you! Whatever we had between us, it's OVER!"

Stephanie replied to Sailor Star Fighter's announcement by flicking her eyes up at the ceiling and proclaiming "thank you, God!"

"At least we know that the traitors who almost destroyed OUR world were corrupted by an evil force!" Sailor Star Maker continued her fellow Starlight's tirade. "Sailor Moon's friends told us that your Spymaster was so evil, even the Silver Crystal couldn't save him!"

Serena's jaw fell wide open. "You filled them in on what happened. Why would you say something like that?" _My jaw fell too. Grandpa did try to help Charon, in his last moments. He did realize he was wrong after all...at least, that's how I understood it. Logan and Serena didn't talk much about what happened after._

"We didn't use those exact words," Mina conceded. "But Serena, the gist of it...it's mostly true. We tried talking things out with the Shadows before and they forced our hand. We said we hoped these two would be different..."

"You said Tithon was so desperate to fight you, that he threatened to cut a harmless old man's throat in front of his very own granddaughter if you tried to flee! You said their leader enjoyed hurting people, that's why he disguised himself as a martial artist and forced his brainwashed thralls to build a twisted underground fighting arena next to their shallow imitation of your future Palace!"

 _I wasn't at the shrine when that happened, but even for me, that sounded like a bit of a stretch. Grandpa was passionate about fighting, sure, but I don't remember him saying that he ENJOYED seeing us get hurt...he kept insisting that he didn't actually want to do any of the things he did, that overthrowing mom and dad wasn't even one of his goals. Maybe Sailor Star Healer was going for the 'bad cop' play to get Stephanie on board?_

"Keep spewing trash about my mentor, and I'll kill all three of you!" Alyssa dared, brandishing her - _shuriken? -_ in her hand once again...quickly ferrying it away before the doorbell went off again. "Will you take a hint?! Buzz off already!"

Serena looked really shook up about what the other girls had told the Starlights too. Maybe I should have said something, but...even if I wasn't sure he ENJOYED doing those things while he was bad, he still technically did them right? I didn't want the others to think I was defending the awful stuff he did. Logan would have known what to say.

"See? She's not repentant in the slightest!" snickered Sailor Star Fighter. "Know what else the Inner Scouts told us about your pals, STEPHANIE? They acted more like demons than people! They went open season on this city just like the Animamates did on our planet! They attacked diners, hospitals, anyone they could find on the streets - "

"Big difference between us and them, Steph: I don't take even my fellow Shadows blindly at their word!" Alyssa waded into the verbal minefield yet again. _She definitely wasn't gonna let Stephanie go that easily._ "They skirmished in front of ONE hospital, that resulted in ONE broken window and a few scrapes! No plural diners, either!"

"And the rest of you! You feel bad Sveti Yeti can dish out the name-calling, but can't take it?" _Oh no, they told Star Fighter about that too!_ "These two haven't done anything to convince us they're different! They're sheltering a criminal just like them, who saw our Princess' kindness as weakness. You were there, Sailor Moon, when she sacrificed everything to save all life in the universe! Just like your friends did! And he repaid all of them by trying to steal her throne from her! He's set on doing - "

"The same thing on your planet that he did to ours! She's got no right to demand an apology, not when she has so much to apologize for first!" Star Healer cut Star Fighter off to join in flipping the tables on Stephanie. Alyssa stayed eerily calm through the whole thing.

"That would be SAILOR Galaxia. Or, did you forget?" Alyssa gloated, though I didn't see what point she was trying to make. _True, Galaxia WAS a Sailor Scout but she only did bad stuff because Chaos forced her too, unless Alyssa was missing the point or saying we were capable of doing bad things too. Like Queen Serenity...OK, maybe she had more of a point than I first thought, but Sailor Moon and I would NEVER turn evil. OK, well, I did once...or twice, but I wouldn't let that happen to me again, not after seeing it! And Sailor Moon never would!_

"You're upsetting me too, now!" Serena finally broke out of her stunned, totally-out-of-character silence. "There's goodness inside of everyone! If we had lost faith in that, we would have lost Hotaru, along with the Negamoon sisters and Nehelenia - "

"That was...kind of a different case, Serena. The Negamoon sisters and Nehelenia opened their hearts to the Silver Crystal. They learned to put their trust in you," Mina quietly argued, shifting away from Logan as if she hoped he wouldn't hear her. "Alyssa sounds like she doesn't even want to try."

"Why are you acting like we're the only ones who can't be trusted?" Stephanie pleaded as if she was certain this would be the last time. "The Survivor hasn't even done anything to prove he's capable of what you're saying he did! How do I know you'll treat him any better than you treated me back at Charon Castle?"

"You had no right to even be there!" Trista injected herself while the Starlights all scoffed over Stephanie's name for their prisoner. _Not in the helpful way she usually did, I had to admit..._

"Don't worry - Serena. I'm the Star-Spangled MAN WITH THE PLAN!" Logan hiccupped and stumbled between the two sides, nearly tripping over himself. "Compromise...that's what Yankee-Land was founded on! That we're not...in...but what about, Ste-fanny and Lisa bring Angst-aru's dad over and...go from there? You see him...fine, then we can talk prison-swapping and what-not?"

"Did you just call me...Angstaru?" _Oh, Logan...now Hotaru sounded madder at you than she was at me._

"Spymaster Charon, genius plan as always!" Diana chirped from atop my forehead. "I can accompany them to their evil lair to guarantee your plan is followed to the letter, at least until the juice settles down!"

"We...could arrange for you to see him, right Alyssa? He wants to see Hotaru - " Stephanie's gesture was cut off by an elbow from Alyssa. _I could have guessed that anything to do with Doctor Tomoe was above Stephanie's pay grade. I could ask Logan that later...did Shadows get paid?_ "Right. Baby steps. Um...maybe he has some, 90s version of Skype we can try first? If they had that sort of thing back then?"

"Stalling for time, so you can use more of your Shadow mind tricks on him first?" Sailor Star Fighter taunted with a snicker. "I've got a better idea. I say we make them tell us where they're hiding...what's his face, AND our fugitive right now! If it's not an ambush, they - or at least, Stephanie - gives us everything they've got on the Shadows! We deal with the rest of their ilk, they give up their dark magic, renounce the Shadows forever, and apologize for everything! Then we let them go on with the rest of their lives!"

"Hopefully on the other side of the Pacific!" Mina grumbled before quickly clearing her throat when faced with a glum-looking Logan. "I mean, Logie-bear, I know your heart's in the right place, and I wish we could make peace with the Shadows too. But this sounds like one of their old tricks."

"IT WAS HIS IDEA!" Stephanie threw her arm out, looking exasperated.

"Alyssa's flipped the tables before. It was a good idea, Logan. It really was..." _From her tone though, I could tell Sailor Mercury was softening the blow to come._ "But the Starlights bring up a very good point. I just don't see how we can trust them as long as long as they remain opposed to everything we stand for. I don't think what the Starlights are insisting on is unreasonable. Doctor Tomoe was possessed the last time he spawned Heart Snatchers to fight against us. I just can't believe he's doing it again of his own free will."

"We made so much progress before, and you're all just giving it away again!" Serena was on the verge of tears now. _If she really wanted us to go along with Logan's plan, she could have stomped her foot and yelled at us too...but she wasn't doing that. Was it because she didn't want to be like Serenity? Or because, like me, the Starlights DID have a few good points?_ "Why can't we give Logan's plan a chance? We're willing to take the risk!"

"But WE can't take that risk with you. Or with Logan, Serena" Raye answered firmly. _I couldn't take that risk either. We almost lost Logan so many times already, and I couldn't bear the thought of my whole childhood and Crystal Tokyo just disappearing. We stuck our necks out for Hotaru because we KNEW she was good. With the Shadows, we just...didn't know._ "Stephanie, I really am sorry for the things we said at the park earlier. I'm sorry for what I said, and taking it as far as I did. But the only way this can work is if you follow the Starlights' plan to the letter. Help us save Doctor Tomoe, help us end the Shadows forever and recapture the Starlights' prisoner...and we'll know you're sincere."

"To the letter? Including the "embrace Sailor Moon as your lord and savior" part?!" _Stephanie sounded as upset as Sailor Moon over how this went._ "Alyssa didn't put Hotaru's dad under any kind of spell! What part of that isn't sinking in?! After you accepted so quickly that I wasn't?""

"You can keep lying for those brainwashing, torturing, psycho-babbling lunatics but you can't keep lying to yourself about Sailor Moon! Seeing her cry over this should be the only proof you need you're on the wrong side!" Stephanie opened her mouth - _she wasn't gonna take Lita's accusation lying down, I was sure -_ but Alyssa stepped in front of her.

"You know what? Your give-and-take is all "we give, and you take" but I'll take you up on it!" _If there were trust issues as far as Stephanie was concerned, there was no way ANYONE would go along with whatever Alyssa had cooking!_ "Part of it. I'm sorry...to Amara and Michelle. Steph and I should have bailed the second Loony Moon's entourage appeared, but for zero-point-two-five seconds, I thought something productive would have come out of this. So I'm sorry for this inconvenience, but I really need you to answer my questions..."

"Alyssa! Don't!" Serena rushed over to clamp a hand on Logan's mouth and throw him in the opposite direction of the little ball things Alyssa dropped. The rest of us followed suit, no time to make a move on either Shadow or ex-Scout before the vapor-like smog cleared. In place of the four escapees, stood a half-a-dozen of the mucky monsters we first saw in the park. "Those half-baked Heart Snatchers aren't too bright! Maybe we could talk - "

"Star Serious Laser!" White beams of pure energy cut perfectly-shaped hole through each of Alyssa's minions. And through the walls. _Singing the forehead of the last person I expected to find waiting at Amara and Michelle's door..._

"Came to ask for a wrench, coming home with a bald spot!" The dark eyes behind the glasses grew wide at the sight of the Red Ninja, and all the familiar faces behind her. _And the drunk guy four of them desperately tried to shield from sight._ "Serena?!"

"DAD?! Oh, don't mind them! It's just a...joint...early Halloween and remodeling party!" Serena laughed for about half a minute before her face went all-serious, while Amy and I dropped our transformations at the fall of a hat. "Dad, do...Amara and Michelle know that you know where they live?"

"This is Michelle Kaiou's place?" Papa Ken asked in shock. "I did write a piece about her for the - but, I didn't know she lived HERE. My car just happened to break down on this street, crazy coincidence right? I really didn't mean to interrupt, but the other houses wouldn't open up to me either. One woman screamed there was a crazy red ninja terrorizing the street?"

"Oh well, don't worry about me! Ninjas don't fight other ninjas - I think! And even if they did, I've got Starlights with me! Why don't you try across street!" Serena pushed him off the patio as quickly as she could and slammed the door...which Star Healer - _who couldn't care less who she looked like to Papa Ken -_ slammed her foot against.

"That's the third time!" Star Healer kicked the door frame this time. _Like it hadn't been damaged enough already._ "They stood right across from us, and we let them slip out of our fingers AGAIN!"

"They'll rear their ugly heads again. They can't help themselves." Star Maker led her fellow Starlights out with a reassuring hand to push each one's shoulder. Before they left, she stopped in the doorway to look back at us. "You made the right choice. I just hope you don't waver again."

"Yeah. Who gives a crap what Logan thinks?" Slurring groggily, Logan drooped and let himself slide off the counter. Lucky for him, Mina was there to catch him. _Even though I don't think he felt very lucky right now._

"Sweetie, don't say that!" Mina looked set on carrying him all the way home, with the watchful and worried eyes of all his other worried friends dotting him... _except Hotaru's. Maybe if we were ferrying to the hospital or he was in real trouble, she wouldn't be looking away._

"I never thought I'd see him like this," Lita said. "I knew pressuring him to lead us to his ex-friends would take a toll, but it's hurting him even more than we thought. Maybe we should...shrink his role in the group a bit?"

"He looked upset with us when he found out we didn't have a job lined up for him in Crystal Tokyo." I reminded Lita, admitting "I don't know what he wants now."

"We can't roll back his part in the group, Lita. Not until we get the Starlights on board, at least," Amy said. "Let's...try not to read too deeply into this. We should talk about this. When he's a bit more coherent, that is."

"I'm...not...incohermabobulathingy! I can carry my weight!" Logan surprised all of us by rising back into consciousness...before keeling over right on top of me. _Having an idea what booze smelled like, and knowing he lay on top of a puke-covered couch several hours...I didn't expect him to smell so nice._ Lying on top of me came at the worst time though, right as Papa Ken doubled back around to the house...

"Serena, Rini, do either of you have a phone I can borrow?" Every other Inner Scout joined in trying to get Logan off me before Papa Ken saw. "I'm going senile in my old age, I just remembered I had roadside assist - RINI?! FIRST MY DAUGHTER, NOW MY NIECE?! STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE, YOUNG MAN!"

"Papa Ken, don't!" My squeal didn't make it very far with Logan's weight pushing the air out of my chest. "Logan's in no condition to - " Just when I said that, he surprised us again by dragging himself off of me like he was sleepwalking and stumbling out the doorway remarkably fast...

"COME BACK HERE!" Papa Ken took off in a mad sprint after him. We all went charging out after them, but one last missing face appeared sitting atop a lamp post.

"If only I had Melvin's number." Tuxedo Mask looked after the pair with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "He might want to challenge Logan to a rematch. I'd say it'd be a fair fight this time!"

The Red Ninja of Love wasn't laughing, though. "And what's YOUR excuse for being late?"

"I was here. It just looked...cramped enough, as it was," Darien reached up to fiddle with his white mask. "What do you say we get after them, before your dad chases Logan off the continent?" And with that, we were off...

 **To Be Continued**

* * *

 **A/N:** Took me a while to push this one out too :/ wasn't an easy chapter, had to make some hard cuts and difficult choices content-wise. It's not easy, trying to paint beloved characters in a gray or even villainous light, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having fun with the idea! I just hope everyone still felt in-character, but if they didn't...I'd really like to hear your thoughts! Even just to know you're still reading! It's been a long turnaround time between chapters, but I always try to make it up to you guys and my goal is a two-parter by the end of next month! I know that the Kinmokuan Survivor, the target of the Starlights' ire, has been something of a plot MacGuffin so far but you'll see a bigger spotlight on him the next two chapters, along with a return to Logan's POV! He's not gonna have a fun morning...

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and your New Year's off to a shining start, hope to talk to you soon!


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